Performance analysis of underwater network protocols within international sea trial

In this paper, we present a performance evaluation of two underwater network protocols, named GUWMANET and Dflood. The protocols were tested at sea during the final demonstration of the EDA project Robust Acoustic Communication in Underwater Networks (RACUN). The project started in 2010 with the goal to develop and demonstrate the capabilities of an underwater ad-hoc acoustic network. The trial took place in Italian waters near La Spezia in May 2014 with contributions from Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden. The network comprised 12 nodes in total, including numerous bottom nodes, a mobile Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), two ship nodes and a gateway buoy. Two scenarios were tested with both network protocols, a Mine Counter Measures (MCM) and Anti Submarine Warfare (ASW) scenario. We present the results of the trial, compare both network protocols with each other and discuss further steps.