Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The UnderWater acoustic Sensor Network (UWSN) is an emerging networking platform that promises a wide range of potential applications, ranging from environmental monitoring, industrial instrumentation monitoring and control, to military surveillance and security monitoring. The advancement of UWSN study is further augmented by the recent increasing interest and engineering activity in the design and deployment of AUVs (Autonomous Unmanned Vehicles), which has required that UWSNs incorporate mobility properties. The use of AUV (or groups of AUVs) will facilitate network deployment strategy, maximize network coverage, and enable high-speed networking; however, it also raises new challenges for localization and synchronization, route planning, medium access control, coordinated estimation, and network connectivity due to the sparse deployment, low communication bandwidth, large propagation delay and delay variation, frequency dependent attenuation, strong multi-path and Doppler effects, and long reach of the acoustic signals of the UWSNs. The objectives of the proposed research are (1) to study the delay/disruption-tolerant network architecture of the UWSNs; (2) to design and evaluate a delay/disruption-tolerant link and network layer protocols; (3) to utilize cooperative communication and networking to improve network functionalities; and (4) to apply a compressed sensing technique for better underwater channel estimation. The impact of AUVs and sensor mobility to algorithm design and network performance will be closely studied for these research objectives. In addition to novel algorithms and analytical models, a hardware platform for prototype design, implementation, and testing will be established through this research. The proposed research will be an ideal platform for highly qualified personnel (HQP) training, where the students will learn to conduct independent and creative research, as well as obtain valuable hands-on experience. This research will help solidify Canada's place in the forefront of underwater communications and networking technologies and provide valuable communication network support for Canada's future natural resources exploitation, environment monitoring, and national security.