Communication theoretic analysis of underwater ad-hoc networks in the presence of interference

We consider the performance of underwater acoustic ad-hoc networks in the presence of interference. We assume a uniform distribution of nodes over a finite area. The node-to-node channel is modeled using frequency dependent path loss and Ricean fading. We adopt a communication theoretic approach and study the interdependence of the sustainable number of hops through the network, end-to-end frame error probability, power and bandwidth allocation. The network operation is highly dependent on the node density with two distinct regions of limited performance: the coverage-limited region, where the number of nodes in the network is small, and the interference-limited region, where the number of nodes is large. We show that a desired level of connectivity can be achieved through a judicious selection of the operating frequency, power and bandwidth. Numerical examples are presented that illustrate the results of the analysis.