Void-aware routing protocols for underwater communication networks: A survey

Abstract

Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs) is a technology used in several marine applications like environment prediction, defense applications, and discovering mineral resources. UASNs has several challenges like high bit error rate, high latency, low bandwidth, and void-node problem during routing. In the context of routing protocols for underwater communication networks, the void-node problem is one of the major challenging issues. The void-node problem arises in the underwater communication during the greedy-forwarding technique, due to which packet will not be forwarded further toward the sink. In this review paper, we analyze the void-node problem in underwater networks and issues related to the void-node. Also, we elaborate on the significant classification of void-handling routing protocols. We analyze both location-based and pressure-based void-handling routing protocols.