Space-Time-Energy based forwarding protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks

The specificity of underwater acoustic channel environment brings the new challenges, such as limited energy supply, high latency and node float mobility, on the development of routing protocols for underwater acoustic sensor networks. The new features require the routing protocols with low energy consumption, real-time and self-organization. But the existing routing protocols for underwater acoustic sensor networks only aimed at one or two of the above factors. In this paper, we propose a new Space-Time-Energy based forwarding protocol, called STE protocol, by integrating the position of the nodes, propagation delay, and energy consumption. Simulation results show that the STE protocol outperforms other routing protocols in terms of the success transmission rate and energy effectiveness.