A Novel Approach for Analyzing Broadcast Overheads in Underwater Sensor Networks

Abstract

Though a lot of technological advancements were achieved in wireless communication systems leading towards a 6G era, underwater acoustic communication is still a challenging and open area for research. Because, the acoustic signals that are used in underwater communication of underwater sensor networks (UWSN’s) causes large propagation delay and high error probability. Because of this error prone nature of UWSN, broadcast-based medium access control (MAC) protocols and routing protocols are commonly used in the design of UWSN systems for reliable data delivery in practical scenarios – but they lead to a lot of broadcast overhead. The location-based routing algorithms of UWSN are also mostly based on broadcast-based message forwarding mechanisms. The objective of this work is to realize the existence of broadcast overhead in the design of underwater MAC (Medium Access Control) and routing protocols using suitable metrics. In this analysis, we will use a location-free routing protocol underwater flooding (UWF) and a location-based routing protocol vector-based forwarding (VBF). The suitable metrics to understand the broadcast overhead in a unique way through MAC and network layer, made in this work will make one to understand the nature of UWSN and its routing protocols and help them to design a better protocol for UWSN.