Energy-efficient 3D deployment of AUV-enabled mobile relay in underwater acoustic sensor networks

With the rapid development of the internet of underwater things (IoUT), conventional underwater data transmission methods face significant challenges due to resource limitations and stringent performance requirements. To address these issues, this paper proposes an energy-efficient relay deployment strategy with user association optimization (AUV-EERD-UA), leveraging autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as mobile relays. The strategy integrates a modified clustering algorithm and an enhanced swarm intelligence optimization approach to optimize relay positioning and user association under complex communication, time, and energy constraints, achieving an optimal balance between data efficiency and energy consumption. The simulation results demonstrate that, compared to traditional methods and other benchmark algorithms, the AUV-EERD-UA strategy significantly improves network energy efficiency (EE) and accelerates convergence speed, ensuring reliable and sustainable operation of underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). © 2025 Elsevier Ltd