DFCR: A Depth-First Clustering Routing Algorithm for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

With the development of ocean exploration and monitoring technology, underwater acoustic sensor networks play an increasingly important role in underwater environmental monitoring, disaster prevention, resource exploration and other fields. However, the particularities of the underwater environment, such as signal attenuation, noise interference, and energy constraints, make efficient data transmission a great challenge. Therefore, we propose a depth-first clustering routing algorithm (DFCR) for underwater acoustic sensor networks, and optimize the cluster head selection and routing of the algorithm, aiming to improve the efficiency of data transmission and prolong the network lifetime. We divide the network into multiple layers, and select the cluster head in each layer except the bottom layer according to the depth and residual energy. The cluster head receives the messages from the sensor nodes at the lower layer than itself, which can avoid the transmission of data from the nodes at the shallower depth to the nodes at the deeper layer, and reduce the number of network hops. Finally, we conduct simulation experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that compared with some existing routing algorithms, our algorithm has better performance in terms of packet delivery ratio and network lifetime.