Clustered multihop transmission in underwater acoustic ad-hoc networks

We consider the performance of clustered underwater acoustic ad-hoc networks. We assume a uniform distribution of nodes over a finite area. The nodes in the network form clusters. The information is transmitted across the network from cluster to cluster with nodes in each cluster organized as virtual transmit/receive arrays. The cluster-to-cluster channel is modeled as a Ricean fading channel. We adopt a communication theoretic approach and study the interdependence of the sustainable number of cluster-to-cluster hops through the network, end-to-end frame error probability, power and bandwidth allocation. We assume an idealized scenario when there is no interference in the network. We present numerical examples that illustrate the results of the analysis. The results indicate that the network exhibits a bimodal behavior. For a given transmit power, bandwidth and cluster size, a certain minimum network density is required in order to guarantee full network connectivity.