Localization Scheme for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 4, March, 2009

A Localization Scheme for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks
Kai Chen1, Yi Zhou2, Jianhua He3 School of Information Security and Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China 2 School of Electronic, Information and Electrical Engineering, Shanghai Jiaotong University, China 3 Institute of Advanced Telecommunications, Swansea University, UK ∗ Corresponding author: Kai Chen, [e-mail]
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Abstract
In this paper, we study the localization problem in large-scale Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs). Unlike in the terrestrial positioning, the global positioning system (GPS) can not work efficiently underwater. The limited bandwidth, the severely impaired channel and the cost of underwater equipment all makes the localization problem very challenging. Most current localization schemes are not well suitable for deep underwater environment. We propose a hierarchical localization scheme to address the challenging problems. The new scheme mainly consists of four types of nodes, which are surface buoys, Detachable Elevator Transceivers (DETs), anchor nodes and ordinary nodes. Surface buoy is assumed to be equipped with GPS on the water surface. A DET is attached to a surface buoy and can rise and down to broadcast its position. The anchor nodes can compute their positions based on the position information from the DETs and the measurements of distance to the DETs. The hierarchical localization scheme is scalable, and can be used to make balances on the cost and localization accuracy. Initial simulation results show the advantages of our proposed scheme.

1. Introduction
In recent several years, there has been a rapidly growing interest in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs). UWSNs can be used for a broad range scientific exploration, including ocean sampling, environmental monitoring, undersea Explorations, disaster prevention, assisted navigation, distributed

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