Efficient Underwater Communication using Rechargeable Mobile Sink Node

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) is a collection of organized and distributed wireless communication networks that comprises of enormous number of sensor nodes in underwater. The emerging wireless charging technology is a promising alternative to address the power constraint problem in sensor networks. Comparing to existing approaches, this technology can replenish energy in a more controllable manner and does not require accurate location of or physical alignment to sensor nodes. However, little work has been reported on designing and implementing a wireless charging system for sensor networks. In this paper, we design such a system, build a proof-of-concept prototype, conduct experiments on the prototype to evaluate its feasibility and performance in small-scale networks, and conduct extensive simulations to study its performance in large-scale networks. The proposed system can utilize the wireless charging technology effectively to prolong the network lifetime through delivering energy by a robot to where it is needed.