An Overview of Next-Generation Underwater Target Detection and Tracking: An Integrated Underwater Architecture

TLDR

Military forces worldwide are increasingly relying on advanced marine technology to detect and track underwater targets, yet challenges such as unstable acoustic communications, time‑consuming simulations, and harsh environments still hinder robust underwater networks. The paper surveys unmanned underwater vehicles and ray‑tracing models to address current needs in underwater target detection and tracking. It proposes a solution that opens new research avenues for underwater networking.

Abstract

Military forces of every country are trying their best to protect their motherland from the attackers. With advancement in marine technology, it has become critical to detect and track the target by obtaining active measurements before it is close enough to attack. The utilization of unmanned underwater vehicles for target tracking behavior is gaining great attention due to continuous advancement of underwater vehicular technology. Nevertheless, safe and stable communications issues among different acoustic devices are still under active investigation to reach a robust, secure, and flexible underwater networking. Moreover, due to harsh underwater environment, acoustic simulations are also time-consuming; therefore, an accurate model for target detection and tracking is a necessity. Apart from the harsh environment of underwater networks, various technologies emerging for terrestrial networking are also becoming the part of underwater networking. For instance, cognitive acoustic networks, software-defined networks, network function virtualization, cloud computing, fog computing, and internet of underwater things; all are leading to trusted next-generation underwater networks. In this paper, we first provide a comprehensive survey of unmanned underwater vehicles and different ray tracing models essential in target detection and tracking that answers several questions regarding the current necessities of underwater networks and finally, provides a solution that opens several doors for research community to excel in this area.