Performance Evaluation of Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks with OPNET

One of the main difficulties when modeling Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN) has to do with the environment characteristics and the acoustic signal typically used. As stated in other works, the accuracy of the acoustic model and the network scenario conditions are critical to obtain reliable results. In this work we proposed a simulator framework for UWSN modeling. For that purpose we have considered the information provided by global databases (temperature, salinity, etc.) located within the network. Namely, the bathymetry and floor sediment, node depth, wave effect, and other factors may affect to the underwater signal propagation behavior. The propagation model is calculated using Bellhop ray tracing tool in order to get the closest representation to the real behavior of the acoustic signal propagation. All these tools are integrated in OPNET Modeler. Finally, we have run several experiments in different locations testing network performance with a simple MAC protocol.