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International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE)
Vol.8, No.6, December 2018, pp. 4366~4373
ISSN: 2088-8708, DOI: 10.11591/ijece.v8i6.pp.4366-4373 4366
Journal homepage: http://iaescore.com/journals/index.php/IJECE
RMEER: Reliable Multi-path Energy Efficient Routing
Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Network
Mukhtiar Ahmed1, Mazleena Salleh2, M Ibrahim Channa3, Mohd Foad Rohani4
1,2,4Faculty of Computing, Department of Computer Science, University Technology Malaysia, Malaysia
3Faculty of Science, Department of Information Technology, Quaid-e-Awam University Nawabshah Sindh, Pakistan
Article Info
ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received Oct 5, 2017
Revised Jan 17, 2018
Accepted Jan 31, 2018
Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) is interesting area for
researchers.To extract the information from seabed to water surface the the
majority numbers of routing protocols has been introduced. The design of
routing protocols faces many challenges like deployment of sensor nodes,
controlling of node mobility, development of efficient route for data
forwarding, prolong the battery power of the sensor nodes, and removal of
void nodes from active data forwarding paths. This research article focuses
the design of the Reliable Multipath Energy Efficient Routing (RMEER)
which develops the efficient route between sensor nodes, and prolongs the
battery life of the nodes. RMEER is a scalable and robust protocol which
utilizes the powerful fixed courier nodes in order to enhance the network
throughput, data delivery ratio, network lifetime and reduces the end-to-end
delay. RMEER is also an energy efficient routing protocol for saving the
energy level of the nodes. We have used the NS2.30 simulator with AquaSim
package for performance analysis of RMEER.We observed that the
simulation performance of RMEER is better than D-DBR protocol.
Keyword:
Energy efficient
Localization
Multi-path
Routing
Underwater
Copyright © 2018 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science.
All rights reserved.
Corresponding Author:
Mukhtiar Ahmed,
Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Comuting,
UTM, Skudai, Johar Behru, Malaysia.
Email: mukhtiar.a@gmail.com
1. INTRODUCTION
Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN) elaborates the widespread applications like assisted
navigation, oil and gas, minerals, seismic monitoring, disaster prevention etc [1], [2]. From the bottom of the
sea the information retrieval source is sensor node, the deployment of sensor nodes with routing protocol is
one of the complicated tasks due to the environmental conditions of under water. In underwater environment
the radio signaling cannot work well due to long distances only at low frequencies (30-300Hz) which require
large antenna and high transmission power [3], [4]. Optical signals are good enough for clean water with
point to point communication;however optical signals cannot work well in underwater sea environment due
to its short range (less than 5m), for optical signaling the precise positioning is required with narrow beam
optical transmitter [5], [3].
Acoustic signals are suitable for underwater environment however the employment of acoustic
channel also faces some challenges in underwater environment like: large propagation delay, and high bit
error rate [6]-[8]. Three dimensional deployment of sensor nodes is not an easy task due to the underwater
pressure and environmental conditions [9]-[11]. However the behavior of sensor node in underwater
environment is also uncontrollable due to water pressure and water current [12], [13]. Another issue for
deployment of sensor node is localization. The existing algorithms of localizations are not appropriate for
under water environment [14], [15]. In underwater environment the localization free routing protocols shows
the good performance as compare to location based routing protocols; because the environment of
Int J Elec& Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708
RMEER: Reliable Multi-path Energy Efficient Routing …. (Mukhtiar Ahmed)
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underwater is localization free [16]. To maitian the energy power of ordinarynode in underwater environment
is also a major issue because in underwater environment the sensor node can not be recharged easily [17].
Routing protocol designing faces many challenges like:
a. In underwater environment the acoustic channel bandwidth is limited.
b. Due to the multipath and fading the acoustic channel will become impaired.
c. In underwater environment the channel propagation delay will cause for low data delivery.
d. Due to the shadow zones or void regions the loss of connectivity will occur.
e. In underwater environment the batteries of sensor nodes cannot be recharged easily.
f. Due to the fouling and corrosion the underwater sensor node may be failure.
g. 3D deployment in underwater environment is not an easy task.
On basis of above challenges the efficient and scalable design of routing protocol is needed. In this
research article we propose the Reliable Multi-path Energy Efficient Routing (RMEER) protocol for
underwater sea environment. RMEER is an energy efficient, scalable, and reliable routing protocol.The
design of RMEER is based on courier nodes, sink nodes, source nodes, and sensor nodes. The fixed sink
nodes are positioned on water surface and static powerful courier nodes are deployed on five numbers of
layers from top to bottom of the sea water. The sensor nodes are deployed at the 5th (bottom) layer of the
water. From bottom layer of sea water the multipath data forwarding technique is used. Fixed courier node is
the powerful node which develops the multipath between source node and sensor nodes. The sensor nodes
retrieve the information from source nodes in multipath fashion and will forward to the courier node. Courier
nodes are responsible to forward the data packets to the surface sink nodes. We compare the simulation
response of RMEER with Directional Depth-Based Routing (D-DBR).
The advantages of RMEER are listed below:
a. RMEER can easily handle the node movement with water current.
b. RMEER reduces the complex routing tables.
c. RMEER is localization free protocol.
d. RMEER utilizes the multi-sinks with multipath disjoint mechanism to enhance packets delivery ratio.
e. RMEER uses the powerful courier nodes to enhance the battery life of ordinary sensor nodes and also
enhances the network lifetime.
2. RELATED WORK
In this section we present the localization free routing protocols with their limitations. In [9] Depth
Based Routing (DBR) protocol is proposed. The routing metric of DBR is depth information of sensor node.
The depth of sensor node information is packed with the data packet and when sender node forward the data
packet to the receiving node; receiving node will compare their depth with the depth of sender node; the
sensor node which keeps the lower depth will forward the data packets. Each forwarder node will keep the
data packet for certain time period. The holding time is based on the difference between current forwarder
node and the sender node. In DBR there are some limitations. DBR only works in greedy mode; so it cannot
perform well in sparse area because it is the possibility that in sparse area that no node can forward the data
packets due to the greater depth as compared to sending node, and current node will continue to make more
and more attempts. In DBR the nodes will calculate their depth in every time and in resultant the energy level
of those nodes will be reduced and die earlier.
In [8] the Directional Depth Based Routing (D-DBR) is proposed. D-DBR forwards the data packets
through optimal path to the sink node. D-DBR is based on single sink and reduces the propagation delay with
less number of hops. Sink node with high battery power is deployed on the surface of water and sensor nodes
are deployed at depth of water. D-DBR uses the holding time and angle holding time functions for route
directives. D-DBR also uses the Time of Arrival (ToA) ranging technique in data forwarding mechanism.
Like DBR the D-DBR also cannot achieve the high delivery data ratio in sparse area. No proper methodology
is defined by D-DBR for the energy saving of ordinary sensor nodes. Removal of voids in underwater
environment is the major issue and D-DBR is inefficient to remove this problem; due to the void problem the
overall network throughput may be degraded.
3. RMEER PROTOCOL
RMEER protocol architecture is based on sink nodes, courier nodes, source nodes, and ordinary
nodes. Sink nodes are deployed on sea water surface, courier nodes are deployed on 5 number of water layers
with fixed static manner and source nodes are deployed at the bottom of the sea as descried in Figure 1.
The sink nodes are connected with onshore data centre through RF signalling. Sink nodes also directly
connected with courier nodes from top to bottom of sea with different layers through acoustic signalling. Sea
ISSN: 2088-8708
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bottom layer ordinary nodes are connected with courier nodes through acoustic signalling. We have
developed the connectivity between source nodes to the courier nodes with multipath disjoint method.
The ordinary sensor nodes are responsible to develop the path between source nodes to courier
nodes through multipath disjoint method. RMEER protocol completes the task for packets delivery from
source nodes to sink nodes within two numbers of phases. One is route development phase and second is data
forwarding phase. The description of two phases is described in below sub sections.
Figure 1. RMEER architecture for UWSN
3.1. Route Development Phase
As already we have discussed that the source nodes are deployed at bottom of the sea water and the
layer-5 courier nodes are responsible to develop the route towards source nodes through ordinary nodes.
From courier to source nodes the route development mechanism is based on multipath node disjoint method
as described in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Multipath between courier to source node
The node disjoint mechanism utilizes the maximum resources of the entire network. In node disjoint
mechanism if any node becomes failure the node disjoint method will select the alternate route to forward the
data packets. The route development between courier nodes to source nodes is based on Hello message.
Courier node is responsible to forward the Hello message towards the neighbor nodes. When the Hello
Int J Elec& Comp Eng ISSN: 2088-8708
RMEER: Reliable Multi-path Energy Efficient Routing …. (Mukhtiar Ahmed)
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message is received by the neighbor nodes; every neighbor node will update its Neighbor Table (NT) with its
new entry and will become the part of the multipath route development. NT will also keep the information
about the list of its neighbor nodes. Hello message format is shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Hello format
In Hello message format the description of every field is given below:
Message sequence: Consists of two byte which creates the message number through message
originator.
Message Type: Consists of one byte and reserved for message type.
Sender ID: Consists of two bytes and is reserved for the node_ID.
Node Type: Consists of one byte and is reserved for node type.
Hop Count : Consists of one byte and reserved for hop count.
Forward Node ID: Consists of two byte and reserves for forwarder node_ID.
Residual Energy Level: Consists of four bytes and reserved to show the residual energy level of
forwarder node.
Link Quality: consists of two bytes and reserved to show the link quality with acoustic channel
between couriers to source nodes.
When the Hello message received by the neighbor nodes; every node also maintains its NT as already we
discussed and related Courier Node Table (CNT). When every node has updated NT and CNT; the LINK
message will be generated by courier node to develop the multipath link between courier nodes to source
nodes.
3.2. Data Forwarding Phase
After the route development phase the source node will broadcast the Route Request (RREQ) on
multiple links to forward the packets to the courier node through neighbor nodes. After the arrival of the
RREQ; the neighbor nodes will update its Routing Table (RT) with new entry. The selection of route is based
on lower link cost criteria.On reception of RREQ; every node will update the NT, CNT, and RT with new
entries. When courier node will receive the RREQ; the courier node will create the new entry for unknown
source node. The timer is set for the RREQ, if RREQ arrives after the time expires than it will automatically
be dropped. It is also the responsibility of the courier node to develop the load balance between all the
multipath links. When the balanced multipath route will be developed between the source and courier node;
the source node will forward the data packets with DATA message.
The link cost and rest of the updated values of NT, CNT, and RT through courier nodes will monitor
the conditions of multipath being used. The courier node has to re-distribute the data rates over paths to
optimize the usage of network resources infrequently. Courier node is responsible to check out the path
failure through inter arrival delay of packets on every link. If delay occurs for pre-determined threshold, the
courier node assumes the path is broken. The courier node will send the RESET signal to the source node to
re-develop the route. When all the bottom layer courier nodes receives the data packets, the courier nodes
further directly forward data packets to the different layered static courier nodes from bottom layer to top
layer with power levels p1, p2, …., pn-1. When top layer fixed courier nodes will receive the data packets
than data packets directly forwarded to the surface sink nodes. Surface sink nodes will forward the data
packets to the onshore data center through RF signaling.
4. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
To measure the performance of RMEER we have used NS2.30 simulator with AquaSim package.
We have considered the 3D deployment area with 5 numbers of layers. We have tested the results on 300
ISSN: 2088-8708
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numbers of nodes. The network size is set on 1000mx1000mx1000m for simulation results. The 802.11-
DYNAC is used as a MAC protocol [18]. We tested the performance of RMEER on 50, 100, 150, 200, 250,
and 300 numbers of nodes. The distance of each layer is set on 200 meters. We have used the energy model
same as described in [19]. Rest of the simulation parameters are described in Table 1.
Table 1. NS2.30 Simulation Parameters
Parameters
Ratings
Network size
1000mx1000mx1000m
No. of nodes
300
Layer distance
200 m
Data packets size
64 bytes
Initial Energy
Energy Consumption:
Transmitting, Receiving,
idle
50 J
2w, 0.75w, 8mw
MAC Protocol
802.11-DYNAV
Water salinity
38
Water temperature
20C to 300C
Average water pressure on
every depth layer
150 dbr
Water density
24.32 Kg/m3
4.1. Performance Analysis Measuring Parameters
The detailed description of performance parameters are described in Table 2 [6].
Table 2. Performance Analysis Measuring Parameters [6]
Performance Metrics
Description
Network Throughput
Throughput refers to aggregated data rate achieved in Kb/s at the destination nodes for the
entire network. In other words, aggregate throughput for all the flows in the network.
Throughput reflects the efficiency of network in collecting and delivering data.
trf
r
thro T
P
N
where
sdtrf TTT
End-to-End Delay
It refers to the average delay for all the data packets arriving at the destination from different
sources. Lower the end-to-end delay signifies better network performance.
n
sd
ete P
TT
D
Routing Overheads
Measure the ratio of control packets/message generated to successfully received data packets
during routing simulation.
m
m
oD
C
R
Average Energy Consumption
and Network lifetime
It measures the average difference between the initial level of energy and the final level of
energy that is left in each node. Let Ei= the initial energy level of a node, Ef= the final energy
level of a node and n= number of nodes in the simulation. Then:
Network lifetime is inversely proportional to energy consumption and referred to time elapsed
since the nodes deployment till the first node dies due to energy depletion.
Packets Delivery Ratio
Packets delivery ratio can be defined; the number of delivered packets at the sink node
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4.2. Network Throughput
In Figure 4 the network throughput of RMEER is higher than D-DBR because the use of powerful
fixed courier nodes has enhanced the network throughput of RMEER.
Figure 4. No. of Nodes v/s Network Throughput
4.3. Network Lifetime
Figure 5 shows the comparison of network lifetime of RMEER against D-DBR. In RMEER the use
of powerful fixed courier nodes have shown the incredible advantage over D-DBR. The powerful courier
nodes have plentiful energy than ordinary sensor nodes; so when courier nodes are involved in data
forwarding mechanism; the longer network lifetime is expected. In contrast, D-DBR experiences excessive
energy consumption, affecting the network lifetime because it is observed that most of the time in D-DBR the
smaller depth nodes continuously forwards the data packets and will die earlier than higher depth nodes.
Figure 5. N/w Lifetime against D-DBR
4.4. Average End-to-End Delay
Figure 6 shows the average end-to-end delay of RMEER against D-DBR. The average end-to-end
delay of RMEER is reduced than D-DBR; because in RMEER we have reduced the number of hops and we
have also used high transmission power between courier nodes for data forwarding which reduces the
average end-to-end delay. D-DBR methodology is based on maximum number of hops which reduces the
performance of D-DBR. D-DBR is uncontrollable in end-to-end delay by increasing of network density
however RMEER remains stable if network density increase.
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
50 100 150 200 250 300
Network Throughput (Kbits/sec)
No. of Nodes
RMEER
D-DBR
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
50 100 150 200 250 300
Network Lifetime (Sec)
No. of Nodes
RMEER
D-DBR
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4.5. Total Energy Consumption
Figure 7 shows the average energy consumption of RMEER against D-DBR. RMEER uses the fixed
powerful courier nodes on different number of layers with small number of ordinary nodes in data forwarding
mechanism; this mechanism increases the life of the ordinary sensor nodes; so amount of energy
consumption is obviously reduced as compare to D-DBR. However, in D-DBR, the depth of sensor nodes is
the only parameter for forwarding. The sensor nodes having same depths also have same holding time for a
data packet. These nodes forward the same data packet concurrently. Therefore, the redundancy of packet
transmissions is unavoidable, which results in excessive energy consumption.
Figure 6. Average E2E delay against D-DBR
Figure 7. Energy consumption against D-DBR
4.6. Packets Delivery Ratio
Figure 8 shows the packets delivery ratio of RMEER and D-DBR. The packets delivery ratio of
RMEER is increased against D-DBR. In RMEER the use of powerful fixed courier nodes have enhanced the
packets delivery ratio. In contrast the packets delivery ratio of D-DBR is reduced due to the complicated
mechanism for data forwarding.
Figure 8. No. of Nodes versus Packets Delivery Ratio (%)
0
0,5
1
1,5
2
2,5
3
50 100 150 200 250 300
Average End-to-End
Delay (Sec)
No. of Nodes
RMEER
D-DBR
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
50 100 150 200 250 300
Average Energy
Consumption (Joules)
No. of Nodes
RME…
D-DBR
0
20
40
60
80
100
50 100 150 200 250 300
Packets Delivery Ratio
(%)
No. of Nodes
RMEER
D-DBR
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5. CONCLUSION
The proposed RMEER routing protocol for underwater wireless sensor network is based on
multipath disjoint technique for data forwarding. The three numbers of routing tables as NT, CNT, and RT
are used in proposed routing protocol. RMEER uses the fixed powerful courier nodes on different layers of
sea water. The sink nodes are deployed on the water surface and the ordinary sensor nodes are deployed at
the bottom of the water. Source nodes are deployed at water bottom which forwards the data packets through
multipath disjoint method to powerful courier nodes and powerful courier nodes further forward the data
packets by utilizing the maximum power levels to the surface sink nodes. We have compared the simulation
response of the RMEER with the famous routing protocol D-DBR and we observed that the simulation
performance of RMEER is better than D-DBR.
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