Spatial Reuse Time-Division Multiple Access for Broadcast Ad Hoc Underwater Acoustic Communication Networks

Underwater acoustic communication (UWAC) is often the only viable solution to establish an ad hoc underwater communication network. The specific features of UWAC, arising from the physics of underwater acoustics, make the design of resource-efficient media access control (MAC) protocols important as well as challenging. In this paper, we tackle this task considering ad hoc UWAC networks that support high-traffic broadcast communication. To this end, we propose the application of the spatial reuse concept and the exploitation of direct sequence spread spectrum used at the UWAC physical layer to obtain a new hybrid spatial reuse time-division multiple-access (HSR-TDMA) protocol. By tracking the time-varying network topology, our protocol adaptively optimizes the set of active communication nodes and overcomes problems of UWAC networks such as the near-far problem, flickering, and formation of islands. Pertinent performance parameters, namely network availability, message reliability, and transmission rate, are analyzed for the proposed protocol. Evaluation of these analytical performance expressions demonstrates the significant advantages of HSR-TDMA over commonly used conventional TDMA for broadcast UWAC networks. We also report performance results for both the HSR-TDMA and the conventional TDMA protocol from a sea trial at the Haifa harbor, which corroborate the results obtained from the analysis.

[1]  B. Reed.  Graph Colouring and the Probabilistic Method , 2001 .

[2]  Kee Chaing Chua,et al.  Aloha-Based MAC Protocols with Collision Avoidance for Underwater Acoustic Networks , 2007, IEEE INFOCOM 2007 - 26th IEEE International Conference on Computer Communications.

[3]  Tracy Camp,et al.  Comparison of broadcasting techniques for mobile ad hoc networks , 2002, MobiHoc '02.

[4]  Ian F. Akyildiz,et al.  State of the art in protocol research for underwater acoustic sensor networks , 2006, MOCO.

[5]  Thomas H. Cormen,et al.  Introduction to algorithms [2nd ed.] , 2001 .

[6]  P. Casari,et al.  Towards Optimal Broadcasting Policies for HARQ based on Fountain Codes in Underwater Networks , 2008, 2008 Fifth Annual Conference on Wireless on Demand Network Systems and Services.

[7]  John G. Proakis,et al.  Digital Communications , 1983 .

[8]  W. Burdic.  Underwater Acoustic System Analysis , 1984 .

[9]  Milica Stojanovic,et al.  Acoustic (Underwater) Communications , 2003 .

[10]  Roee Diamant,et al.  A Novel Spatially Shared TDMA Protocol and Quality Measure for Ad Hoc Underwater Acoustic Network , 2009, 2009 International Conference on Advanced Information Networking and Applications Workshops.

[11]  Milica Stojanovic,et al.  On the relationship between capacity and distance in an underwater acoustic communication channel , 2007, MOCO.

[12]  K.J. Bengston,et al.  Design & Performance of a Networked Ad-hoc Acoustic Communications System using Inexpensive Commercial CDMA Modems , 2007, OCEANS 2007 - Europe.

[13]  Charles H. Sherman,et al.  Transducers and Arrays for Underwater Sound , 2008 .

[14]  Panganamala Ramana Kumar,et al.  RHEINISCH-WESTFÄLISCHE TECHNISCHE HOCHSCHULE AACHEN , 2001 .

[15]  Syam Menon.  A sequential approach for optimal broadcast scheduling in packet radio networks , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Communications.

[16]  Jean C. Walrand,et al.  Fair end-to-end window-based congestion control , 2000, TNET.

[17]  M. Stojanovic,et al.  Multi-cluster protocol for ad hoc mobile underwater acoustic networks , 2003, Oceans 2003. Celebrating the Past ... Teaming Toward the Future (IEEE Cat. No.03CH37492).

[18]  A. Laouiti,et al.  Optimized link state routing protocol for ad hoc networks , 2001, Proceedings. IEEE International Multi Topic Conference, 2001. IEEE INMIC 2001. Technology for the 21st Century..

[19]  J. G. Proakis,et al.  Direct sequence spread spectrum based modem for under water acoustic communication and channel measurements , 1999, Oceans '99. MTS/IEEE. Riding the Crest into the 21st Century. Conference and Exhibition. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.99CH37008).

[20]  Leonard Kleinrock,et al.  Spatial TDMA: A Collision-Free Multihop Channel Access Protocol , 1985, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[21]  Jim Kurose,et al.  A survey of practical issues in underwater networks , 2007 .

[22]  Raphael Rom,et al.  Multiple Access Protocols: Performance and Analysis , 1990, SIGMETRICS Perform. Evaluation Rev..

[23]  Jiejun Kong,et al.  Analysis of Aloha Protocols for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks , 2006 .

[24]  Anthony Ephremides,et al.  Scheduling broadcasts in multihop radio networks , 1990, IEEE Trans. Commun..

[25]  Milica Stojanovic,et al.  Underwater Acoustic Communications and Networking: Recent Advances and Future Challenges , 2008 .

[26]  S. Ramanathan,et al.  A unified framework and algorithm for channel assignment in wireless networks , 1999, Wirel. Networks.

[27]  John S. Heidemann,et al.  Comparison and Evaluation of the T-Lohi MAC for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks , 2008, IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications.

[28]  Roee Diamant,et al.  A novel architecture for multihops routing ad hoc underwater acoustic sensor networking , 2008 .

[29]  Dario Pompili,et al.  A CDMA-based Medium Access Control for UnderWater Acoustic Sensor Networks , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications.

[30]  Raphael Rom,et al.  Multiple Access Protocols: Performance and Analysis , 1990, SIGMETRICS Perform. Evaluation Rev..

[31]  Yuan Li,et al.  Research challenges and applications for underwater sensor networking , 2006, IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, 2006. WCNC 2006..

[32]  J. Gronkvist.  Assignment methods for spatial reuse TDMA , 2000, 2000 First Annual Workshop on Mobile and Ad Hoc Networking and Computing. MobiHOC (Cat. No.00EX444).

[33]  M. Stojanovic,et al.  Slotted FAMA: a MAC protocol for underwater acoustic networks , 2006, OCEANS 2006 - Asia Pacific.

[34]  David Finkel.  Book review: Multiple Access Protocols: Performance and Analysis by Raphael Rom and Moshe Sidi (Springer-Verlag, 1990) , 1991, PERV.

[35]  Prasant Mohapatra,et al.  STUMP: Exploiting Position Diversity in the Staggered TDMA Underwater MAC Protocol , 2009, IEEE INFOCOM 2009.

[36]  Keshab K. Parhi,et al.  Distributed scheduling of broadcasts in a radio network , 1989, IEEE INFOCOM '89, Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies.