EWR-CSA: Energy-Aware and Secure Routing Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Cone Search Algorithm

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are composed of underwater wireless sensors and various other components that communicate with each other. They support diverse applications such as seismic monitoring, subsurface navigation, tsunami prediction, and military and environmental monitoring. These networks face several challenges, including issues related to energy consumption, battery life, time synchronization, node localization, and sensor deployment. Security is also a very important consideration in UWSNs, as they are highly vulnerable to attacks. To reduce energy consumption and counter security threats, an innovative Energy-aware Weighted Routing (EWR) protocol is proposed, which uses a Cone Search Algorithm (CSA). EWR utilizes cooperative routing to improve network efficiency and performance. Finally, the performance of the proposed technique is evaluated using simulations run on NS2 software, and the results are compared with advanced protocols such as IWDT, RE-PBR, SEECR, and EWR-Circle SA based on several metrics. The proposed method outperforms the others, achieving higher efficiency and better performance with a 4% improvement in detection accuracy, 33% reduction in energy consumption, 6% reduction in packet loss, 2% improvement in throughput, and 5% reduction in delay.