Challenges and opportunities for underwater sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are distributed event-based systems comprising of tiny nodes capable of sensing the environmental phenomena with a limited battery, low pro­cessing power and short-range radio for communication. Most of the applications of sensor network are concerned with sensing scalar sensor such as temperature, pressure, humidity, or location of objects that can be conveyed through low-bandwidth and delay-tolerant data streams. More than a decade's research has matured communication protocols, sensor technology, bandwidth, energy efficiency and lifetime of traditional WSNs. The recent interest in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSN) has resulted in various technological advances in the domain as well however, these advances have faced many challenges that are not seen in traditional WSNs. This paper discusses the technical challenges and available technologies that can be used to establish an underwater sensor network solution for applications such as monitoring of coral reefs.