UCODENs: Underwater Collaborative Detection Networks

While underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) are a widely studied topic, their practical application still faces various challenges. One of the most important reasons is that existing works have not fully accounted for the particularities of the underwater environment from a high-level point of view, as well as the nature of underwater networks that are oriented toward specific detection tasks. In this paper, we propose an Underwater COllaborative DEtection Nework (UCODEN) to regard the underwater detection network as an integrated, informed, and intelligent system rather than a network with some subsystems. To achieve the custom design based on the network’s mission, basic functions like network layout, data collection, and target localization are suggested to be considered jointly. To describe the concept of UCODENs in terms of systematism, adaptability, and practicality, a fixed sensor network is applied and developed. Considering the asymmetry of ranges along with the vertical and horizontal directions, a semi-three-dimensional structure is proposed. Some crucial definitions, including the evaluation criteria, are also proposed. Considering the close connection between the aforementioned basic functions of the underwater network, an error forward propagation flow is proposed to disclose the error sources related to different basic functions. Besides that, a feedback information flow is proposed to activate the adaptability of UCODENs. UCODENs point to a particular network to satisfy a customized mission or some specific purpose in future application scenarios. Finally, a numerical example of UCODEN in the form of a fixed sensor network is proposed to present the advantages of UCODENs over normal UWSNs.