Routing Protocols for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Abstract

Sensor networks for underwater environments face adversarial conditions due to an unstable environment. In order for the sensor nodes to perform in an optimal manner, customized routing protocols are required for routing the data from source to destination. This paper provides a survey of the various underwater routing protocols. The routing protocols are classified based on their functionalities and an analysis has been carried out based on several parameters such as packet delivery ratio, delay, efficiency, load balancing, fault tolerance, and energy efficiency. Furthermore, this paper highlights the advantages, disadvantages and application areas of the routing protocols.