Location-Aware Routing Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Networks

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are being used in ever larger numbers, and the rise in the simultaneous use of multiple AUVs is introducing challenging communication problems best addressed in the realm of mobile, ad hoc networking (MANET). This paper describes location-aware source routing (LASR), our modification of the dynamic source routing (DSR) protocol to add location awareness and link quality metrics. A new protocol is needed because of the unique difficulties of underwater networking: radio links do not work through water, and the acoustic links that are used instead have much lower data-rates and much higher latency. Specifically designed for use in underwater acoustic networks, LASR is explained, and initial simulation results are presented to show that the new protocol performs better than two existing techniques