Wait-time aware TDMA MAC protocol for underwater acoustic sensor networks

Mobile underwater acoustic sensor networks (MUASN) are confronted with several challenges such as large delay between nodes, asymmetric propagation delay, and high power consumption. We propose the mobile wait-time aware time division multiple access (MWA-TDMA) medium access control protocol for MUASN. The MWA-TDMA construct temporary master node before mobile nodes transmissions in order to reduce propagation delays between mobile nodes. To reduce overall delay and avoid packet collisions between mobile nodes, MWA-TDMA determines the transmissions schedule of mobile nodes based on nodes’ mobile wait-time. Simulation results show that MWA-TDMA is superior to ALOHA and CSMA in throughput, average delay time, and energy efficiency.