{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,24]],"date-time":"2026-03-24T00:20:11Z","timestamp":1774311611755,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,9]],"date-time":"2018-01-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1515456000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Interference and energy holes formation in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) threaten the reliable delivery of data packets from a source to a destination. Interference also causes inefficient utilization of the limited battery power of the sensor nodes in that more power is consumed in the retransmission of the lost packets. Energy holes are dead nodes close to the surface of water, and their early death interrupts data delivery even when the network has live nodes. This paper proposes a localization-free interference and energy holes minimization (LF-IEHM) routing protocol for UWSNs. The proposed algorithm overcomes interference during data packet forwarding by defining a unique packet holding time for every sensor node. The energy holes formation is mitigated by a variable transmission range of the sensor nodes. As compared to the conventional routing protocols, the proposed protocol does not require the localization information of the sensor nodes, which is cumbersome and difficult to obtain, as nodes change their positions with water currents. Simulation results show superior performance of the proposed scheme in terms of packets received at the final destination and end-to-end delay.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18010165","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,9]],"date-time":"2018-01-09T14:00:08Z","timestamp":1515506408000},"page":"165","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":44,"title":["A Localization-Free Interference and Energy Holes Minimization Routing for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"given":"Anwar","family":"Khan","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"},{"name":"Department of Electronics, University of Peshawar, Peshawar KPK 25000, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4324-8965","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ismail","family":"Ahmedy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer System and Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kualalumpur 50603, Malaysia"}]},{"given":"Mohammad","family":"Anisi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, Colchester CO4 3SQ, UK"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3777-8249","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nadeem","family":"Javaid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Park Road, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9549-2540","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ihsan","family":"Ali","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer System and Technology, Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University of Malaya, Kualalumpur 50603, Malaysia"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9058-4809","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nawsher","family":"Khan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan 23200, Pakistan"},{"name":"Collage of Computer Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia"}]},{"given":"Mohammed","family":"Alsaqer","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Collage of Computer Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia"}]},{"given":"Hasan","family":"Mahmood","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electronics, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,1,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Pompili, D., and Tommaso, M. 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