ELT: Energy-Level-Based Hybrid Transmission in Underwater Sensor Acoustic Networks

Lifetime prolonging is one significant research issue in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). First this paper analyzes the relationship between the receiving energy consumption and the transmission energy consumption in the acoustic communication of UASNs. The routing tree is built up on the factor of optimal transmission range. Then a hybrid data transmission mechanism based on energy level is proposed to balance energy consumption. The mechanism combines one-hop and multi-hop data transmission to underwater sink considering the current energy level of adjacent nodes. An optimal classification number of energy level has been evaluated through theoretical analysis. Our design will help prolong the lifetime of whole UASN. The simulation results of UASN´s lifetime and the energy consumption of sensor nodes have proved the efficiency of the Energy-Level-based hybrid Transmission (ELT) mechanism.