An Architecture for Underwater Networks

As electromagnetic waves do not propagate well underwater, acoustics plays a key role in underwater communication. Due to significant differences in the characteristics of electromagnetic and acoustic channels, networking protocols for underwater systems differ from those developed for wired and wireless radio networks. Various schemes have been proposed for one or many aspects of underwater networks. However, no widely accepted common framework exists for underwater acoustics to unify these proposed schemes into a functional underwater network. The availability of such a framework will enable easy integration of independently developed techniques and thus accelerate the pace of research in underwater acoustic networking. In order for a common framework to be successful, it needs to have a wide acceptance. To gain such an acceptance, a framework needs to take into account a wide variety of different constraints and requirements for various underwater applications. This requires inputs from various research groups and end users. To help define the use cases and a common framework for underwater networking, a joint effort has been initiated between acoustic communication research groups at the Acoustic Research Laboratory (National University of Singapore), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In this paper, we discuss the first draft of the framework specifications from this effort. We welcome feedback from the underwater acoustic research community and potential end users of underwater networking systems.