A consensus based handover scheme for autonomous underwater vehicle swarms in underwater acoustic sensor networks

This paper proposes a novel underwater handover mechanism based on clusters, designed to ensure continuous connectivity for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) swarms. The proposed method leverages a consensus algorithm, enabling all nodes within the swarm to participate in the process of making handover decisions. Instead of relying on centralized control by a specific node, the nodes within the swarm achieve consensus through 1-hop message exchanges, determining whether to attempt a handover based on the agreement reached. Simulation results show that the AUV swarm successfully determines handover decisions in accordance with channel conditions and swarm mobility through consensus while minimizing unnecessary handovers. Compared to the conventional method, where a single AUV makes independent handover decisions, the proposed approach demonstrates performance improvements of approximately 30.12 % in energy consumption and 8.89 % in Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR).