Comparative Analysis of Opportunistic Routing Protocols for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

Underwater wireless sensor networks have received increased attention in recent years due to its numerous applications in oil spills detection, ocean exploration, submarine detection and disaster avoidance. All these applications make use of a number of sensor nodes deployed in different depths in the ocean for data collection and communication. Efficient communication in the network of sensor nodes requires a dynamic routing approach. Most of the routing protocols proposed for traditional sensor networks cannot be used for underwater sensor networks due to its unique characteristics such as dynamic topology, limited bandwidth, high energy utilization and increased latency. Considering these unique features, efficient routing protocols are exclusively designed for underwater sensor networks. The latest opportunistic routing protocols proposed for underwater sensor network guarantees very high Quality of Service to all the applications. This research paper presents a survey and comparison of all the latest opportunistic routing protocols that has been designed for underwater sensor networks. We then discuss the issues and challenges with each of these opportunistic protocols with future research directions.