HCR: A HYBRID MAC PROTOCOL FOR UNDERWATER SENSOR NETWORKS USING CHANNEL RESERVATION

摘要

Underwater sensor networks (UWSN) for long-term ocean monitoring become hot spots in recent research, but the unique characteristics of underwater acoustic channel bring challenges in medium access control (MAC) protocol design. Most existing approaches are simplex and cannot suit well for all network load cases. We propose HCR, a high efficient MAC protocol for UWSN, which combines the excellences of competition-based and scheme-based protocols, and can suit for all traffic load cases. HCR is a hybrid of TDMA and a random access protocol, and protocols switch dynamically due to the change of traffic load. It is load adaptive, energy efficient and has high network throughput. Some trade-offs and optimization problems are also discussed. Finally, detailed simulations are made to validate the capability and efficiency of HCR.