MRP: A localization-free multi-layered routing protocol for underwater wireless sensor networks

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) have distinctive characteristics due to the use of acoustic signals as its physical medium for communications, including high propagation delay, limited bandwidth and high error rates. Hence, designing communication protocols, particularly, an efficient routing protocol for UWSNs is a challenging issue. Routing protocols can take advantage of the localization of sensor nodes. However, the localization itself is not impeccable in UWSNs. In this paper, we therefore propose a localization-free routing protocol named MRP (multi-layered routing protocol) for UWSNs. MRP utilizes super nodes in order to eliminate the need of localization. MRP works in two phases: Layering phase and Data forwarding phase. During layering phase, different layers are formed around the super nodes. In data forwarding phase, data packets are forwarded based on these layers. Through simulation study using NS-2 simulator, we proved that MRP contributes significant performance improvements against representative routing protocols.