Topology control for internet of underwater things

Abstract

Internet of Underwater Things (IoUTs) has gained increased attention thanks to the recent developments in underwater communication and sensing technologies. IoUTs will employ heterogeneous underwater sensor nodes with diverse underwater communication technologies, for sensing their surrounds and improve ocean awareness. Despite the current advancements (e.g., energy harvesting, software-defined underwater networking, programmable underwater nodes), many critical challenges still need to be solved towards the large-scale, autonomous and efficient data collection from the oceans. In this regard, IoUTs' topology control (TC) can be explored to improve networking services. However, the classical solutions employed for TC will not be suitable for IoUTs, given the heterogeneity of nodes, underwater communication technologies, and the requirements of concurrent underwater monitoring applications. This paper discusses the challenges for the design of TC algorithms for IoUTs. We present recent advances in terms of physical and networking layers of IoUTs and highlight how such developments challenge the design of TC algorithms for IoUTs. Furthermore, we shed light on novel directions to be explored for TC in IoUTs, as well as we provide guidelines for the design of innovative TC algorithms. Finally, we present future research directions that need to be addressed.