Analyzing Routing Protocols for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Underwater sensor networks (UWSN) resemble terrestrial sensor networks in many aspects. Howeve r, the high propagation delay and limited bandwidth make terres trial sensor network's protocols unsuitable for UWSN. For instance, routing protocols proposed for terrestrial networks are not applicable in an underwater network. Therefore, enormous efforts have been made for designing efficient protocols while considering the characteristics of underwater communication. This a rticle reviews state-of-the-art routing protocols proposed for UWS N. Major routing protocols are taken into account and each p rotocol is described in detail. Taxonomy of the routing protoc ols is presented where the protocols are categorized into four categ ories i.e. flooding based protocols, multipath based, cluster based and miscellaneous protocols.