A High-Availability Data Collection Scheme based on Multi-AUVs for Underwater Sensor Networks

In this paper, a high-availability data collection scheme based on multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) (HAMA) is proposed to improve the performance of the sensor network and guarantee the high availability of the data collection service. Multi-AUVs move in the network and their trajectory is predefined. The nodes near the trajectory of an AUV directly send their data to the AUV while the others transmit data to nodes that are closer to the trajectory. Malfunction discovery and repair mechanisms are applied to ensure that the network operates appropriately when an AUV fails to communicate with the nodes while collecting data. Compared with existing methods, the proposed HAMA method increases the packet delivery ratio and the network lifetime.