Branching based Underwater Clustering Protocol

Background/Objectives: Underwater wireless sensor network has widely influenced the scientist to explore the data and to study the underwater environment deep inside the ocean. Methods: The new clustering technique which is effective in prolonging the lifetime of the underwater nodes. An AODV (Ad-Hoc on-Demand Vector) routing protocol has been used in order to find the shortest path between nodes. SNR (Signal-to-Noise Ratio) based dynamic clustering mechanism partition the nodes into various clusters and select the Cluster Head (CH) among the nodes based on energy whereas other nodes join with a specific CH based on the SNR values the clustering technique is effective in prolonging the lifetime of the UWSN (Underwater Sensor Network). Findings: Due to the mobility nature of underwater sensors, ocean currents and unique characteristics of acoustic signals such as long propagation delay, low bit error rate, low bandwidth make the transmission period longer. Hence more energy is consumed by the sensor nodes while transmission. Our proposed system introduces signal to noise ratio based clustering mechanism which improves the energy consumption of network and minimizes the transmission delay. Applications/Improvements: The simulation result verifies the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed technique and also shows increased rate in PDR (Packet Delivery Ratio) and less energy consumption.