Topological configuration and optimization in underwater acoustic sensor networks: A survey

Marine environmental monitoring, marine resource development, and maritime rights and interests protection had put great demands on underwater acoustic sensor networks. At the same time, it was found that the configuration and optimization of the underwater acoustic sensor network had important influence on the network performance and service quality in the uncertain marine environment. According to the characteristics of dynamic evolution of network topology and combining with different practical application scenarios, this article studied and discussed the model description, configuration mechanism, and optimization strategy of underwater acoustic sensor network. First, the classical underwater acoustic sensor network models were divided and discussed from three aspects: dimension, sensor types, and dynamic and static states. The characteristics of the six models are compared and analyzed. Second, according to the characteristics of six different models, the configuration mechanism and optimization strategy are discussed and classified. The configuration mechanism of models was studied from the aspects about determinism, self-adaptation, and group intelligence. The optimization strategy of models was discussed from the aspects about coverage, connectivity, energy consumption, time delay, data quality, and so on, and the relations and differences between different methods were compared and analyzed. Finally, the five future researches direction were expected, in order to provide a clear idea for further research in this field.