Oceanic forces and their impact on the performance of mobile underwater acoustic sensor networks

SUMMARY This paper focuses on the performance analysis of Underwater Wireless Acoustic Sensor Networks (UWASNs) with passively mobile sensor nodes moving because of the influence of major oceanic forces. In an UWASN, passive node mobility is inevitable. Therefore, the performance analysis of UWASNs renders meaningful insights with the inclusion of a mobility model, which represents realistic oceanic scenarios. In this regard, the existing works on performance analysis of UWASNs lack the consideration of major dominating forces, which offer impetus for a node's mobility. Additionally, the existing works are limited to only shallow depths and coastal areas. Therefore, in this paper, we have proposed a physical mobility model, named Oceanic Forces Mobility Model, by incorporating important realistic oceanic forces imparted on nodes. The proposed model considers the effects of node mobility in 3-D space of water. We also present an analysis on the impact of node mobility on the performance of UWASNs in terms of network dispersion and localization. Simulation results indicate performance degradation of UWASNs in the presence of oceanic forces—localization coverage decreases by 36.70%, localization error increases nearly by 21.14%, and average energy consumption increases by 3% approximately. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.