Source-based disjoint multi-path routing protocol for underwater acoustic networks

As acoustic communication environment is characterized by limited bandwidth, long propagation delay and high bit error rate, different routing protocols have been proposed to address these issues. In this paper, we propose a source-based disjoint multi-path routing protocol for underwater acoustic communication networks. In this protocol, each data packet is routed by the relay node’s cost, which is determined by the initial hop count, the energy consumption, and the packet collision probability. Once the routing path is determined, the path cost will be updated based on the cost of relay nodes and related interference nodes. Through simulation, we demonstrate that the proposed routing protocol significantly improves network throughput, reduces end-to-end delay, and increases packet delivery rate.