Underwater Acoustic Communications and Networking: Recent Advances and Future Challenges

The past 30 years have seen a growing interest in underwater acoustic communications because of its applications in marine research, oceanography, marine commercial operations, the offshore oil industry and defense. Continued research over the years has resulted in improved performance and robustness as compared to the initial communication systems. In this paper, we aim to provide an overview of the key developments in point-to-point communication techniques as well as underwater networking protocols since the beginning of this decade. We also provide an insight into some of the open problems and challenges facing researchers in this field in the near future.