Enhanced Source Location Privacy for Energy Efficiency in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper addresses the source location privacy (SLP) problem in underwater wireless sensor networks. The goal is to utilize the node’s energy more efficiently without compromising security. Existing solutions for the SLP problem do not address the energy hole problem, where nodes near the sink deplete their energy faster due to handling large amounts of data. We propose the energy-balanced random walk routing protocol (EBRW) to balance node energy consumption and extend network lifetime without sacrificing source location privacy. Simulation results demonstrate that compared to the traditional random walk strategy, EBRW can increase network operational time by up to 54%.