Energy-Efficient Routing of Information Exchanges in the Network of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles

The paper considers the issues of constructing an energy-efficient message routing procedure in a network of autonomous underwater vehicles. Information interaction between network agents is carried out using underwater sound communication, the feature of which is non-directional signal emission, a speed limit (kilobits per second) and a limitation of the exchange radius. The distance restriction leads to the need to form a route using underwater vehicle as message repeaters. The study focuses on the problem of ordering messages in each of the vehicle at the stage of the transmission session and reduces to a well-known problem statement (flow shop)-scheduling according to the criterion of the minimum average time spent working in the system. An algorithm for scheduling communication sessions based on the concept of a solvable class of systems is proposed. The developed algorithm makes it possible to reduce the total time of information exchange in the network of autonomous underwater vehicles and, as a result, increase the energy efficiency of the network. The paper describes the procedure for constructing a dynamic routing table in the network, an algorithm for scheduling exchanges. The results of modelling the operation of the scheduling algorithm are presented.