Confidence-based Underwater Localization Scheme for Large-Scale Mobile Sensor Networks

The absence of Global Positioning System in underwater environment predominates in the challenges of underwater vehicles navigation or sensor nodes tracking. Localization of single or few underwater vehicles has been fostered in recent years. However, online simultaneous tracking of large-scale mobile sensor network is still a very challenging research area due to the high cost and the very limited number of vehicles that can be simultaneously localized using Ultra-Short Base Line (USBL) system. We propose a confidence-based localization algorithm for large-scale underwater mobile sensor networks that employs high precision localized sensor nodes in neighboring sensor nodes localization. Numerical simulation shows that a swarm of 100 sensor nodes can be tracked using a single USBL system, range measurement sensors and communication modems

Analyzing the performance of localization protocols for underwater acoustic sensor networks

Sualtı Duyarga Ağları (SDA) insan eliyle tehlikeli veya olanaksız sayılabilecek sualtı görevlerinde kullanılırlar. SDA’lar okyanusbiliminde, deprem ve tsunami tahmininde, askeri uygulamalarda, okyanus petrol platformlarının gözetlenmesinde ve çeşitli birçok alanda kullanılabilirler. Sualtı duyarga düğümleri sabit bir platforma tutturulmuş olabilir veya su içersinde serbest halde yüzebilir. Su yüzeyinden metrelerce aşağıda yüzen duyarga düğümler, gezgin sualtı duyarga ağını oluştururlar. Duyarga düğümler okyanuslardan sıcaklık, akıntı hızı, tuzluluk ve görüntü kaydı gibi veriler toplarlar. Gezgin bir SDA’da, duyarga düğümler su yüzeyinin altında, akıntıyla birlikte hareket eder ve belirli bir olayı izlerler. SDA’larda en ciddi sorunlardan biri konumlandırmadır. Konum bilgisine, veri etiketleme ve konum-tabanlı yönlendirme protokollerinde ihtiyaç duyulur. Geniş ölçekli, üç boyutlu SDA’lar için, literatürde az sayıda konumlandırma protokolü önerilmiştir. Bu makalede, İner-Çıkar düğümlerle Konumlandırma (İÇK) ve Vekil Konumlandırma (VK) yöntemlerini tanıtıp, sözkonusu yöntemlerin başarımını önceden önerilmiş olan bir başka yöntemle karşılaştırmaktayız. Bu yöntem, Geniş Ölçekli Konulmandırmadır (GÖK). Bu üç tekniğin avantaj ve dezavantajlarını gezgin bir SDA için göstermekteyiz. Benzetim sonuçlarımız GÖK’ün yüksek konumlandırma başarısına sahip olduğunu, ancak bu yöntemin beraberinde yüksek enerji tüketimi ve ek haberleşme yükü getirdiğini göstermektedir. İÇK ise, yüksek konumlandırma başarımı, yüksek kesinlik, düşük enerji tüketimi ve düşük haberleşme maliyetine sahiptir. VK ise, kabul edilebilir konumlandırma başarımı, düşük enerji tüketimi ve daha az ek yük getirmekte, buna karşılık diğerlerinden daha düşük kesinlik sağladığı görülmektedir.  Anahtar Kelimeler: Sualtı duyarga ağları, konumlandırma, duyarga ağlar.Underwater Sensor Networks (USNs) can improve naval defense, earthquake/tsunami forewarning, water pollution detection, ocean life monitoring systems, etc. Stationary Underwater Sensor Networks are ideal for securing or monitoring a fixed target region, e.g. monitoring oil drilling platforms for spill detection, harbor entrances for surveillance, ocean bottom for seismic activity observation, etc. On the other hand, mobile untethered Underwater Sensor Networks are flexible and better alternatives for short term exploration of moving targets. For instance, untethered, free-floating underwater sensors can track a chemical spill or a pollutant that may be dangerous to human health or sea life. In a sensor network, sensor nodes collect data from their surrounding and tag these data, in order to transmit them to a more powerful node for processing. Therefore, it is crucial to know the location of the sensor nodes. Location is required for data tagging, as well as, target detection, node tracking, etc. In addition, localization is essential for position-based routing algorithms which are powerful alternatives to classical routing approaches in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANET). Localization is a well studied topic in terrestrial sensor networks. Nevertheless, in Underwater Sensor Networks, localization is still challenging due to several reasons: i) unavailability of the GPS; ii) low bandwidth, long delay and high bit error rate of the acoustic links; iii) necessity of high amount of sensor nodes to cover the three dimensional region. The use of GPS is limited to surface nodes because the GPS signal does not propagate through the water. In sensor networking literature, several GPS-less (GPS-free) positioning schemes have been proposed however they usually have high overhead. The underwater sensors use acoustic links and the bandwidth of those links is low even for very short distances. Moreover, acoustic communications has high propagation delay and high bit error rate. In Underwater Sensor Networks, localization protocols are expected to avoid excessive overhead and establish localization with the least possible messages. This is also enforced by the limited battery life of the underwater sensor nodes and the difficulty of recharging or replacing the batteries in an underwater application. Usually, an underwater application requires a large number of sensor nodes because the data rate of the acoustic links increases with decreasing distance and shorter ranges between nodes, means that more sensor nodes are needed to cover the three dimensional oceanographic zone. In addition, in a mobile Underwater Sensor Network localization should be repeated and stale location information should be cleared periodically. Considering all these challenges, it is essential to develop novel localization protocols tailored for mobile Underwater Sensor Networks. In this article, we introduce two distributed, scalable localization techniques; Dive and Rise Localization (DNRL) and Proxy Localization (PL). In DNRL, mobile beacons ascend and descend in the water to deliver their GPS driven coordinates. In PL, the already localized nodes act like beacons likewise multi-stage localization which is a preliminary version of PL (Erol et al., 2008). Unlike the previous work, in PL the non-localized nodes use a different metric to choose the best possible proxies among the candidates which enhances the performance of the protocol. Here, we compare the performance of PL, DNRL and Large-Scale Localization (LSL). LSL is a technique from the literature (Zhou et al., 2007). We evaluate the performance of these schemes in terms of localization success, accuracy, overhead and energy consumption. Since we compare the performance of the localization techniques for a mobile Underwater Sensor Network, a realistic underwater mobility model is essential. Recently, the works of Caruso et al. (2008) and Erol et al. (2008) have applied the real ocean current behavior to Underwater Sensor Networks. We use the "Meandering Current Mobility with Surface Effect" (MCM-SE) model to compare the performance of the three localization schemes for a mobile underwater sensor network. The main aim of the article is to provide a comparison between recently proposed localization schemes for Underwater Sensor Networks. Based on the simulation results, we compare and analyze the performance of three recent methods that are developed for distributed localization in large-scale Underwater Sensor Networks in terms of localization ratio, accuracy, protocol overhead and energy consumption.  Keywords: Sensor networks, underwater sensor networks, localization

Low cost underwater acoustic localization

Over the course of the last decade, the cost of marine robotic platforms has significantly decreased. In part this has lowered the barriers to entry of exploring and monitoring larger areas of the earth's oceans. However, these advances have been mostly focused on autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs) or shallow water autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). One of the main drivers for high cost in the deep water domain is the challenge of localizing such vehicles using acoustics. A low cost one-way travel time underwater ranging system is proposed to assist in localizing deep water submersibles. The system consists of location aware anchor buoys at the surface and underwater nodes. This paper presents a comparison of methods together with details on the physical implementation to allow its integration into a deep sea micro AUV currently in development. Additional simulation results show error reductions by a factor of three.Comment: 73rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of Americ

Cellular Underwater Wireless Optical CDMA Network: Potentials and Challenges

Underwater wireless optical communications is an emerging solution to the expanding demand for broadband links in oceans and seas. In this paper, a cellular underwater wireless optical code division multiple-access (UW-OCDMA) network is proposed to provide broadband links for commercial and military applications. The optical orthogonal codes (OOC) are employed as signature codes of underwater mobile users. Fundamental key aspects of the network such as its backhaul architecture, its potential applications and its design challenges are presented. In particular, the proposed network is used as infrastructure of centralized, decentralized and relay-assisted underwater sensor networks for high-speed real-time monitoring. Furthermore, a promising underwater localization and positioning scheme based on this cellular network is presented. Finally, probable design challenges such as cell edge coverage, blockage avoidance, power control and increasing the network capacity are addressed.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure