Ocean monitoring using underwater sensor networks faces communication challenges in retrieving data, communicating large amounts of data between nodes, and covering increasing spatial regions while remaining connected. With underwater sensor networks that are capable of surfacing, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a solution to this by providing radio-based data muling services, but, as this area is still unexplored, the utility of this solution is unclear. In this paper, we examine the theoretical expectations, perform several field experiments, and analyze the communication success rates of 802.15.4 radios near the water surface both communicating between surface nodes as well as between a node and the UAV. These indicate that on the water surface internode radio communication is poor, but node to UAV communication can provide both reasonable ranges and success rates. We additionally measure and analyze the energy aspects of the systems, determining the impacts of parameters such as network size and distance between nodes on the UAV energy. Finally, we consolidate the information into an algorithm outlining how to configure and design hybrid UAV and underwater sensor network systems.
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