Void Avoiding Opportunistic Routing Protocols for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

• Published in: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 22; no. 23; p. 9525
• Main Authors: Mhemed, Rogaia, Phillips, William, Comeau, Frank, Aslam, Nauman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 06.12.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Acoustics; Algorithms; Architecture; Bandwidths; Communication; Computer Communication Networks; Computer network protocols; Data transmission; Design; Designers; Network reliability; Nodes; Noise; opportunistic routing (OR); Packets (communication); Propagation; Reproducibility of Results; Review; Reviewing; routing; Routing (telecommunications); Sensors; underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs); void area; void avoiding; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor networks; Wireless Technology; void avoiding; void area; routing; opportunistic routing (OR); underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs)
• ISSN: 1424-8220; 1424-8220
• DOI: 10.3390/s22239525

One of the most challenging issues in the routing protocols for underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) is the occurrence of void areas (communication void). That is, when void areas are present, the data packets could be trapped in a sensor node and cannot be sent further to reach the sink(s) due to the features of the UWSNs environment and/or the configuration of the network itself. Opportunistic routing (OR) is an innovative prototype in routing for UWSNs. In routing protocols employing the OR technique, the most suitable sensor node according to the criteria adopted by the protocol rules will be elected as a next-hop forwarder node to forward the data packets first. This routing method takes advantage of the broadcast nature of wireless sensor networks. OR has made a noticeable improvement in the sensor networks' performance in terms of efficiency, throughput, and reliability. Several routing protocols that utilize OR in UWSNs have been proposed to extend the lifetime of the network and maintain its connectivity by addressing void areas. In addition, a number of survey papers were presented in routing protocols with different points of approach. Our paper focuses on reviewing void avoiding OR protocols. In this paper, we briefly present the basic concept of OR and its building blocks. We also indicate the concept of the void area and list the reasons that could lead to its occurrence, as well as reviewing the state-of-the-art OR protocols proposed for this challenging area and presenting their strengths and weaknesses.