EM-Based High Speed Wireless Sensor Networks for Underwater Surveillance and Target Tracking

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are considered as tangible, low cost solution for underwater surveillance and exploration. Existing acoustic wave-based UWSN systems fail to meet the growing demand for fast data rates required in military operations, oil/gas exploration, and oceanographic data collection. Electromagnetic (EM) wave-based communication systems, on the other hand, have great potential for providing high speed data rates in such scenarios. This paper will (1) discuss the challenges faced in the utilization of EMwaves for the design of tactical underwater surveillance systems and (2) evaluate several EM wave-based three-dimensional (3D) UWSNarchitectures differing in topologies and/or operation principles on the performance of localization and target tracking. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first of its kind in the field of underwater communications where underwater surveillance techniques forEMwave-based high speedUWSNs have been investigated. Thus, this will be amajor step towards achieving future high speed UWSNs.