An energy-conserving depth-based layering MAC protocol for underwater sensor networks

TY - GEN

T1 - An energy-conserving depth-based layering MAC protocol for underwater sensor networks

AU - Alfouzan, Faisal

AU - Shahrabi, Alireza

AU - Ghoreyshi, Seyed Mohammad

AU - Boutaleb, Tuleen

N1 - Acceptance and AAM requested x 2 ET 12/7/18 Applied 'no exception' as no file available. ET 14/11/19

PY - 2019/4/15

Y1 - 2019/4/15

N2 - Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) are effective tools for discovering and observing the underwater environment. Due to the unique characteristics of its acoustic channels such as long propagation delay, limited bandwidth, and high bit error rate, most contention-based Media Access Control (MAC) protocols are usually costly. As a result, both contention-based MAC protocols with and without RTS/CTS schemes do not perform as efficiently as their achieved performance in terrestrial networks. A collision-free approach is increasingly considered to more likely achieve a better performance by preventing any possibility of collisions in order to improve the energy efficiency and throughput across the network. In this paper, we propose a novel energy-conserving and collision-free depth-based layering MAC protocol, called DL-MAC, for UWSNs. Through multiple layers and distributed clustering approach, DL-MAC successfully schedules reception and transmission periods according to nodes priority in the network. It also addresses the spatial-temporal uncertainty, near-far, and hidden/exposed terminal problems. Our extensive simulation study shows that DL-MAC outperforms previously reported protocols in terms of throughput, packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, and fairness under varying offered loads.

AB - Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) are effective tools for discovering and observing the underwater environment. Due to the unique characteristics of its acoustic channels such as long propagation delay, limited bandwidth, and high bit error rate, most contention-based Media Access Control (MAC) protocols are usually costly. As a result, both contention-based MAC protocols with and without RTS/CTS schemes do not perform as efficiently as their achieved performance in terrestrial networks. A collision-free approach is increasingly considered to more likely achieve a better performance by preventing any possibility of collisions in order to improve the energy efficiency and throughput across the network. In this paper, we propose a novel energy-conserving and collision-free depth-based layering MAC protocol, called DL-MAC, for UWSNs. Through multiple layers and distributed clustering approach, DL-MAC successfully schedules reception and transmission periods according to nodes priority in the network. It also addresses the spatial-temporal uncertainty, near-far, and hidden/exposed terminal problems. Our extensive simulation study shows that DL-MAC outperforms previously reported protocols in terms of throughput, packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, and fairness under varying offered loads.

KW - underwater sensor networks

KW - media access control (MAC)

KW - depth-based scheduling

KW - multiple layer division

KW - cluster-based approach

KW - collision-free MAC protocol

U2 - 10.1109/VTCFall.2018.8690910

DO - 10.1109/VTCFall.2018.8690910

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - 2018 IEEE 88th Vehicular Technology Conference: VTC2018-Fall

PB - IEEE

ER -