Energy Efficient Routing Protocols for Underwater Sensor Networks-A Survey

Underwater acoustic networks in a rapidly growing area of research as it finds different applications for monitoring and collecting data for environmental studies and military surveillance. The need for creating a new set of protocols optimized acoustic communication arises from the major differences in the underwater acoustic communication and terrestrial radio communication. Energy efficiency plays an important role in underwater acoustic communication as underwater sensor nodes are powered by batteries which are difficult to replace or charge on the node is deployed. This paper surveys the recent routing techniques that focus on energy efficiency. Each protocol is discussed in detail and the advantages and disadvantages are identified. The paper includes new research