Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks Challenges

Underwater systems in a wireless sensor network are intended to sense the ocean through sensors and devices and then coordinate to autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). For example: to construct the fiber-optic-based sensor network, ocean observatories utilize underwater cables which support nearly miles of the ocean floor.

This is about to tell you the upcoming Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks Challenges, Research Areas, Ideas, Topics, etc.!!!

Further, Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are vastly growing due to their scientific developments in real-world aquatic assets monitoring. And, below we have given some use-cases and scenarios where the engineering concepts of UWSN are largely applied.

• Sampling of ocean
• Coalmine investigation
• Data collection from underwater entities
• Identification of anonymous vehicles
• Uncertainty detection in submarine
• Navigation assistance for blockage detection
• Defensive measures against underwater disaster
• Environmental condition observation
  • Detection of weather and climate variation
  • Tracking of moving fishes or other micro-creatures
  • Management of ocean currents
  • Realization of human actions in submarine
• Decentralized preventive surveillance for intrusion detection / reconnaissance

Now, we can see about that the important characteristics of UWSN. Since these characteristics will instigate the scholars to bring a new dimension of UWSN exploration. The specialization of UWSN relies on the following challenging factors which made UWSN characteristics unique from others.

Unique Features of underwater wireless sensor network

• Use resource-constrained sensor nodes (batter power, bandwidth and energy)
• Compare to radio frequency signals in terrestrial communication, acoustic channels has minimum propagation delay due to minimum sound speed which is about 1500 m/s
• The restricted bandwidth is caused due to the following criteria
  • Maximum environmental noise with Minimum frequencies
  • Maximum communication loss with Maximum frequencies

What are the constraints of the challenge in underwater wireless sensor network UWSN)?

However, UWSN is technically growing fast in several engineering and research fields, it has some limitations while implementing in real environments. So, all these issues attract people who are interested in UWSN research. Though there are several acoustic communication challenges, the following are most important to concentrate more on UWSN research.

• High Propagation Delay
  • Here, the propagation delays are excessively increases because the acoustic waves are lower in speed than the radio waves while passing over air.
• Poor Connectivity
  • Here, there are more chances of rigorous impairment of communication medium / channel (Fading and Multipath). Continuous variation and temporary connection breakdowns due to shadow regions
• High Energy Utilization
  • Here, the transmit power is always large due to the constant variation in node position than the terrestrial network. However, it extremely restricted in bandwidth and battery power, the underwater nodes utilize more energy for every process.
• High Error Rate
  • Here, there are high possibility of sensors failure due to corrosion and fouling in underwater. This causes high error rate. Generally in underwater scenarios, the radio waves are enormously weakened due to the salt-water.
  • For instance, sound speed is nearly 2e⁵ times lesser than the light speed and also excessive and bit rate errors.
• High Dynamic Network Topology
  • Here, the sensor nodes can freely move from one place to another due to the water current which results in constant network structure and time variations
• High Interference and Noise
  • Here, the noises are happened due to the dynamic movement of water current and interferences are occurred due to some external factors like surface reflections, water animals, etc.

In addition, our experts have given you few more technical issues faced by UWSN research. Below, we have given some popular but unsolved Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks Challenges that are currently in high demand to solve precisely.

Presently, UWSNs face issues and challenges regarding,

• Inefficient Routing
• Restricted Bandwidth
• Limited Power Usage
• Larger Propagation Latency
• 3Dimensional Topology
• High Resource Consumption
• Media Access Control (MAC)

On knowing the importance of UWSN, our resource has framed several thought-provoking solutions for all major and minor problems. If you are looking for the best guidance in selecting techniques/algorithms then we help you to fulfill your needs.

Once you selected the topic, then you move towards system design. In order to attain the expected performance in UWSN, you need to know the elements that may affect the system performance. Since it helps you to take preventive measures in the time of UWSN system designing itself.

List of Factors that influence the performance of UWSN 

• Noise
  • Happen either due to environmental changes or human
• Data Loss in Communication
  • The transformation of acoustic energy to heat may lead to increased attenuation
  • The extendibility of wave fronts may lead the sound energy to scatter everywhere
• Produce intersymbol interference by multipath propagation

In the above sections, we have fully discussed the UWSN characteristics, limitations, research challenges/issues, and elements that affect UWSN performance. We hope, you got a clear picture of UWSN and further, if you want more details then we are ready to share that too for your benefit. From all those Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks Challenges, we have identified unlimited research ideas which have the flavours of new technologies. Below, we have given some of them for your reference,

Latest Ideas on Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks 

• Position computation
  • Due to some default noises over communication, there may be lack of accuracy in underwater sensors measurements
  • Hence, effectual sensor tracking and measurement mechanisms are need to be deigned which are capable to tolerate the noise without affecting performance.
• Node localization
  • GPS is not capable to provide accurate node location because of the extreme electromagnetic waves attenuation
  • Therefore, advance accuracy-guaranteed node localization scheme is need to be developed which also creates positive impact on moving object tracking process
• Node cooperation
  • Efficient data communication among nodes which minimize number of unnecessary transmission
• Energy management
  • Efficient stabilization in trade-off between energy utilization and tracking precision
  • Since, it helps to compute and expand the lifespan of the network
• Future-position estimation
  • However it is not necessary to use in all techniques on target tracking, it gains the attention of recent techniques
  • Since, it helps to improve the efficiency of energy utilization for conservation
  • Further, the efficient use of node scheduling mechanism also increase the energy saving

Basically, our research experts have the ability of forward-thinking in default to provide you latest research topics in Underwater Sensor Networks. For this purpose, we constantly make ourselves aware of all new developments in overcoming Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks challenges. For your information, here we have given you some up-to-date research topics from our newest collections.

Research Topics on Underwater Sensor Networks

• Sensor Location
  • Problem – Sensors are positioned in distant location
    • Countermeasure – Detect the optimal position for locating sensors close to their neighbors
• Data Collection
  • Problem – High latency because of fixed path
    • Countermeasure – Depends on emergency of data, select the adaptive path
  • Problem – High possibility of data redundancy and Time-consuming data collection
    • Countermeasure – Utilize many number of AUVs
• Clustering
  • Problem – Unbalanced cluster formation with Ineffective cluster head selection
    • Countermeasure – Need to select optimal cluster head through efficient approach
• Sleep Scheduling
  • Problem – Lengthier sleep time interval and Unsynchronized sleep conditions
    • Countermeasure – Based on the deployed node features, design the adaptive sleep and wake-up time interval
• Routing
  • Problem – Continuous loss / breakdown of network connections due to high number of hop counts
    • Countermeasure – Select the optimized shortest distance path for transferring data

In modern society, the underwater sensor network Simulator is also moving ahead to fulfill the needs of both individual and industrial people. So, it is essential to keep in touch with the current trends of UWSN. Below, we have listed out few exciting research fashions which are collected from our recent study.

Current Trends in Underwater Sensor Networks 

• Data Collection
  • In general, the underwater sensors monitor both bottom and surface areas to capture the incoming data through specific communication channel
  • Need efficient route planning of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle in 4D / 3D / 2D – UWSN
• Data Mapping in Distributed System
  • Conversion of Raw Information to Server Information
  • Classification based In-Network Processing
• Motion strategies for Mobile Sensors
  • Basically, the tracking of moving objects in underwater is mainly implemented in widespread areas. In this, the dynamic moving sensors perform well than the fixed sensors.
  • So, it is essential to create efficient mobility mechanisms for moving sensors by considering topology variation.
  • To satisfy this need, we can develop several adaptive motion schemes which functions based on local data
• Localization
  • Use advance node localization strategies to predict the underwater sensors location in 4D / 3D / 2D – UWSN
• Stereovision and Computer vision
  • Underwater 4D Image / Video Reconstruction
• Data Routing
  • Determine the optimal shortest path for fast data transmission. Also, it avoid the link breakage
  • Form the efficient inter and intra-cluster among nodes for communication in 4D / 3D / 2D – UWSN
• Synchronization
  • Achieving Time-Synchronization on Inter / Intra – Media
• Data Fusion
  • In the case of tracking system, we need to focus on integration of homogenous data and heterogeneous data for effective mechanism
  • This helps you to design the fault tolerant tracking mechanism
• Traffic Management
  • Multimedia Data Monitoring and Control
  • Channel Scheduling and Assignment for Multimedia Transmission
• Cluster-based Routing
  • Efficient Cluster Formation and Cluster Head Selection in 4D / 3D / 2D – UWSN
• Network Lifespan and QoS Enhancement
  • QoS-Aware Efficient Techniques and Algorithms for High Network Lifetime (Qos Parameters in Networks)
• Surveillance in Hybrid Networks
  • Advance monitoring and investigation of data in AUV-Sensor Networks

Thus far, we have debated in the perspective of current research ideas, topics, and trends. Now is the time to discuss the forthcoming technologies of UWSN. Make sure that your handpicked research topic is implicitly or explicitly related to future research direction at any point. Since it is more useful to you and your followers for extending the study on next generation technologies of UWSN..

Emerging Technologies of UWSN

• Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT)
• Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) / Industry 4.0
• Software Defined Network (SDN)

Overall, we are ready to support any kind of Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks challenges Projects. We provide not only research services but also project development and thesis writing services for UWSN. So, if you are interested then make a contact us to achieve the remarkable research work.

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