Article Abstract

	Title:	A prototype underwater acoustic sensor network platform with topology-aware MAC scheme
	Author:	Fei Hu, Paul Tilghman, Yamin Malkawi, Yang Xiao
	Address:	Department of Computer Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 83 Lomb Memorial Drive,Rochester, NY 14623-5603, USA. ' Department of Computer Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 83 Lomb Memorial Drive,Rochester, NY 14623-5603, USA. ' Department of Computer Engineering, Rochester Institute of Technology, 83 Lomb Memorial Drive,Rochester, NY 14623-5603, USA. ' Department of Computer Science, The University of Alabama, 101 Houser Hall, Box 870290, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0290, USA
	Journal:	International Journal of Sensor Networks 2007 - Vol. 2, No.5/6  pp. 386 - 398
	Abstract:	Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) can be used in ocean exploration and lake pollution monitoring. They use acoustic media to achieve sensor communications. UWSNs are essentially different from terrestrial RF-based sensor networks due to its highly variable, long propagation delay and mobility nature. In this paper, we first describe our experimental design of low-cost underwater sensor nodes for deployment in a shallow underwater environment. Then, we propose two UWSN Medium Access Control (MAC) enhancements that can adapt to long acoustic delay: (1) topology-ware scheduling scheme to save more energy and (2) a coordination protocol among neighbours to reduce the frame queuing delay during MAC operations. Our experimental results show the energy efficiency of our UWSN MAC protocol.
	Keywords:	underwater WSNs; wireless sensor networks; medium access control; MAC; wireless communications; acoustic communications; acoustic sensors; wireless networks; ocean exploration; lake pollution monitoring; topology-ware scheduling; coordination protocol.
	DOI:	10.1504/IJSNET.2007.014363
		Purchase this Paper         Comment on the Paper