Efficient error recovery with network coding in underwater sensor networks

Before the wide deployment of underwater sensor networks becomes a reality, one challenge to be met is efficient error recovery in the presence of high error probability, long propagation delays and low acoustic bandwidth. We believe that network coding is a promising technique for this purpose due to Eq. (1) the computational capability of underwater sensor nodes, and Eq. (2) the broadcast nature of acoustic channels. In this paper, we propose an efficient error-recovery scheme that carefully couples network coding and multiple paths. Through an analytical study, we provide guidance on how to choose parameters in our scheme and demonstrate that the scheme is efficient in both error recovery and energy consumption. We evaluate the performance of this proposed scheme through simulation, and the simulation confirms the results from the analytical study.