Underwater Networking

Dear Colleagues,

The interest in underwater networks is rapidly on the rise. Knowledge of the ocean environment is important to our understanding of the Earth and of interest to many groups of people including geologists, physicists, chemists, biologists, ecologists, meteorologists, and engineers. In fact, 70% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water, and we have explored less than 5% of the oceans. The oceans contain important fossil reserves, pristine nature, and biodiversity for future generations. Communication technologies will play a key role in providing remote, unobtrusive ocean monitoring, and a balance between sustainable exploitation and conservation.

Current underwater deployments often comprise low numbers of instruments recording data during a mission for later retrieval. Improvement in underwater networking is required to transform our ability to explore the oceans, by enabling continuous data collection and control of a potentially large number of underwater sensing and communication devices from remote sites. Such technology would allow us to gather a wealth of data to better understand the Earth’s natural processes, monitor marine life, and protect biodiversity. It will help predict natural disasters in the oceans and undoubtedly lead to the discovery of new ecosystems and sources of energy, food, and medicine.

Recent developments in underwater sensing, robotics (such as autonomous underwater vehicles), and low-cost acoustic modem design are notable enabling technologies. Further advances are required, however, including improvement in underwater networking capability. Further research on this topic needs to be underpinned by an understanding of the underwater channel, different application requirements, and practical deployment constraints.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to solicit original research papers on all aspects of underwater networking, including (but not restricted to):

• Multiple-access techniques
• Medium access control
• Link-layer reliability
• Multi-hop routing
• Localisation and tracking
• Mobility management
• End-to-end quality of service provisioning
• Integration with terrestrial systems (e.g. via radio backhaul)
• Cross-layer design

It is our intention to bring together the latest developments in the field within this single issue, as a valuable resource for both new and experienced researchers in the field.

Dr. Paul Daniel Mitchell
Dr. Roberto Petroccia
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• underwater communication
• network
• acoustic
• multiple access
• medium access control
• reliability
• routing
• localisation
• mobility
• quality of service