Mobile Relaying-Based Reliable Data Collection in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks
Mingyue Cheng, Quansheng Guan, Fei Ji, Julian Cheng, Weiqi Chen
Abstract
Underwater acoustic sensor networks are the efficient way to realize marine applications, which greatly rely on reliable data collection from underwater sensors. For this purpose, we exploit an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) as a mobile relay to reduce communication errors, and propose a frame error rate (FER)-based AUV relay algorithm. This algorithm will allow the AUV to avoid visiting the sensors that have sufficiently low FER to reduce cruising journey. For high-FER sensors, the AUV moves to the minimum-FER relay positions to relay their data. By analyzing the solution structure, we transform the FER minimization problem into an equation set to obtain the optimal relay position. The simulation verifies the validity of the equation set. Using the calculated optimal relay position, the FER-based relay achieves a lower average FER of data collection and lower energy consumption than the existing energy-consumption based relay algorithm.