Improving Underwater Acoustic Network Performance with AUV Swarm Mobility and Environmental Awareness

This study introduces an environment-adaptive strategy for Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), aimed at optimizing the network performance by adjusting the operating depth of AUVs based on environmental sensing. We conduct simulations using the DESERT Underwater network simulator [1] integrated with the World Ocean Simulation System (WOSS) [2] [3] to assess the impact of this strategy across various network configurations, using both Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) Media Access Control (MAC) schemes. Furthermore, we explore the timing of environmental sensing, comparing the effectiveness of performing Sound Speed Profile (SSP) measurements at different points during the mission versus a single initial measurement. Additionally, we investigate the benefits of exploiting a priori qualitative knowledge of the underwater channel to perform a more accurate initial placement of the AUVs around the Sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) duct, aiming to enhance communication performance from the outset. Our findings highlight that depth optimization can enhance the communication performance under specific environmental conditions, improving the network efficiency in terms of Packet Error Rate (PER) and throughput. We envision its potential use in long-term AUV deployments, where depth optimization can be selectively applied to support data transmission during critical phases.