VEER: a void-aware energy efficient routing algorithm for underwater wireless sensor networks

Underwater sensor networks (UWSNs) are experienced by various challenges like void regions, acoustic signals travel time, sparse density and scare energy resources. UWSNs is a remarkable mystical region, which is still unexplored. Significant challenges one must consider are high power consumption due to acoustic medium, high latency and dynamic topology due to the node's movement in water. Sometimes sensor nodes are not able to find any neighbor node to forward the data. The regions where no any forwarder node exist are called void regions. Due to these limitations and problems exist in UWSNs, Operative routing in the network is essential to guarantee data transmission and network survivability. Efficient routing is therefore crucial to ensure reliable data delivery and network longevity. In this paper, VEER (Void-aware Energy Efficient Routing), a new routing scheme that optimizes path choice through using various contextual metrics, is proposed. Propose algorithm introduces a few metrics like Node Forwarding Suitability (NFS), Energy Cost per Unit (ECT) and Void Probability Estimation (VPE) to calculate the void regions. Node Forwarding Suitability (NFS) metric combines energy level, node depth and sink closeness. Void Probability Estimation (VPE) identifies the probability of finding the void regions. VEER dynamically castigates nodes on energy-consuming links and closeness to void areas to preventively reduction of transmission failures and thus save the energy. The algorithm is completed by a strong recovery mode for void avoidances. VEER has been implemented and compared against conventional schemes like EEGWO, EDOVE, Hydrocast, CUWSN and WDFAD-DBR regarding packet delivery ratio, energy consumption, end-to-end delay, and void recovery success. Simulation results shows that VEER experience 10-14% improvement over existing algorithms in terms of Average number of hops, 18-22% improvement in Average residual energy, 0.91-0.94% in packer delivery ration and experience minimum delay of 1.9 s among all compared algorithms. These results validate VEER as an effective solution for efficient and reliable data forwarding in UWSNs.