1 School of Computer Science and Technology, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
2 Key Laboratory of Industrial Internet of Things and Networked Control, Ministry of Education, Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications, Chongqing 400065, China
3 School of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 310018, China
4Management Department, College of Business Administration, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, P.O. Box 84428, Riyadh 11671, Saudi Arabia
5 Department of Computer Science, College of Science, Northern Border University, Arar 91431, Saudi Arabia
6 Department of Software Engineering, College of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Hafr Al Batin, Hafr Al Batin 39524, Saudi Arabia
7 Institute of Intelligent Manufacturing Technology, Shenzhen Polytechnic University, Shenzhen 518000, China
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Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2025, 25(1), 286; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25010286
Submission received: 13 November 2024 / Revised: 30 November 2024 / Accepted: 19 December 2024 / Published: 6 January 2025
Abstract
This paper introduces a novel energy-efficient lightweight, void hole avoidance, localization, and trust-based scheme, termed as Energy-Efficient and Trust-based Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (EETAUV) protocol designed for 6G-enabled underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). The proposed scheme addresses key challenges in UASNs, such as energy consumption, network stability, and data security. It integrates a trust management framework that enhances communication security through node identification and verification mechanisms utilizing normal and phantom nodes.
Furthermore, a 6G communication module is deployed to reduce network delay and enhance packet delivery, contributing to more efficient data transmission. Leveraging Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs), the EETAUV protocol offers a lightweight approach for node discovery, identification, and verification while ensuring a high data transmission rate through a risk-aware strategy including at low computational cost. The protocol’s performance is evaluated through extensive simulations and compared against state-of-the-art methods across various metrics, including network lifetime, throughput, residual energy, packet delivery ratio, mean square error, routing overhead, path loss, network delay, trust, distance, velocity, Computational Cost of Routing, and data security. The results demonstrate the superior cumulative performance of the proposed EETAUV scheme, making it a robust solution for secure, efficient, and reliable communication in UASNs.
