Link Scheduling Method for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks Based on Correlation Matrix

The unique characteristic of the underwater acoustic communication channel force development of new protocols for underwater acoustic sensor networks. Especially, the pretty slower propagation speed of acoustic signals in underwater should be taken into consideration. This paper constructs a link scheduling model on medium access control (MAC) layer for multihop underwater acoustic sensor networks. The proposed model employs correlation matrix to describe the conflicts relationship among links and uses propagation delay to generate conflict matrix for collision detection. In order to minimum the frame length, a power control strategy is introduced and aimed to reduce the effect of link interference. Then, a heuristic algorithm is presented to solve the conflict-free problem based on the model. Simulation results show that the link scheduling method and the power control strategy can effectively improve network performance with respect to throughput and end-to-end delay.