A survey of routing protocols for internet of underwater things from a performance evaluation perspective
Abstract In this paper, we present a review of IoUT routing protocols, categorizing them into four groups: geographic, opportunistic, void-handling, and clustering routing protocols. We compare and evaluate these routing categories using various performance metrics. Furthermore, we analyze the strengths, limitations, applications, and performance trade-offs of existing IoUT routing protocols across the evaluation scenarios considered. Finally, we discuss key challenges and future research directions for the development of IoUT routing protocols.
Authors
- Sherali Zeadally (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5982-8190)
- Sarang Karim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1983-0843)
- Lubna Luxmi Dhirani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7654-4117)
- Bhawani Shankar Chowdhry (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4340-9602)
- Faisal Karim Shaikh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4692-6696)
Institutions
- University of Kentucky (US)
- Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (PK)
- University of Limerick (IE)
- University of Johannesburg (ZA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- npj Wireless Technology
- Published
- 2026-11-02
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s44459-026-00091-6
- Primary Topic
- Underwater Vehicles and Communication Systems
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00