Underwater Communication through Medium Access Control

Abstract— Same as, radio-frequency-based wireless networks (RWNs) which used in terrestrial environments. The medium access control (MAC) protocol is a key element for underwater acoustic networks (UWANs). Due to peculiar features of underwater acoustic channels such as long propagation delay, very small channel capacity, low channel reliability, and high dynamics of channel quality, not only MAC protocols but also MAC design strategies originally developed for RWNs cannot work well in UWANs. This paper reviews these proposals with an enhanced MAC reference model. This model decomposes a MAC protocol into a couple of components that make up a common structure for various MAC protocols so that they can be more easily understood. The major remaining issues and possible research directions. Keywords— Wireless networking, sensor networks, underwater acoustic communications, CDMA, performance, Medium access control (MAC) protocol, transport protocol, RF communication, underwater acoustic network (UWAN), Multiple input multiple output