An Energy Adaptive Image Transmission Path for Underwater Multimedia Acousic Sensor Networks

Underwater multimedia acoustic sensor networks will be widely used in many underwater applications such as image and video acquisition, multimedia undersea explorations, tactical surveillance and disaster prevention. However, due to the differences between terrestrial radio propagation and underwater acoustic propagation, it is essential to design energy efficient image transmission solution for underwater acoustic network. As the value of absorption coefficient in thermocline layer and deep water layer are quite different, how to find the optimal path with minimum energy consumption becomes a more challenge issue. In this paper, the transmission paths are divided into three types, the upward path, the straight path and the downward path. Because the energy consumption varies quite difference in different depth, the straight path with the shortest transmission distance may not be the optimal path with minimum energy consumption. In order to find the optimal path with minimum energy consumption from the source node to the sink, we evaluate the energy consumption of the three type path numerically and address how to gain the optimal path. The experimental results show that when the water depth is above about 2 km, the straight path has the least minimum energy consumption among the three paths, while the downward path that choice the correct parameters consumes the least energy when the water depth is below about 2 km.