SPARCO: Stochastic Performance Analysis with Reliability and Cooperation for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Reliability is a key factor for application-oriented Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs) which are utilized for gaining certain objectives and a demand always exists for efficient data routing mechanisms. Cooperative routing is a promising technique which utilizes the broadcast feature of wireless medium and forwards data with cooperation using sensor nodes as relays. Here, we present a cooperation-based routing protocol for underwater networks to enhance their performance called Stochastic Performance Analysis with Reliability and Cooperation (SPARCO). Cooperative communication is explored in order to design an energy-efficient routing scheme for UWSNs. Each node of the network is assumed to be consisting of a single omnidirectional antenna and multiple nodes cooperatively forward their transmissions taking advantage of spatial diversity to reduce energy consumption. Both multihop and single-hop schemes are exploited which contribute to lowering of path-losses present in the channels connecting nodes and forwarding of data. Simulations demonstrate that SPARCO protocol functions better regarding end-to-end delay, network lifetime, and energy consumption comparative to noncooperative routing protocol—improved Adaptive Mobility of Courier nodes in Threshold-optimized Depth-based routing (iAMCTD). The performance is also compared with three cooperation-based routing protocols for UWSN: Cognitive Cooperation (Cog-Coop), Cooperative Depth-Based Routing (CoDBR), and Cooperative Partner Node Selection Criteria for Cooperative Routing (Coop Re and dth).