{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,19]],"date-time":"2026-02-19T15:57:08Z","timestamp":1771516628079,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]],"date-time":"2019-03-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1552608000000},"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>Nowadays, the Internet of Things enabled Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (IoT-UWSN) is suffering from serious performance restrictions, i.e., high End to End (E2E) delay, low energy efficiency, low data reliability, etc. The necessity of efficient, reliable, collision and interference-free communication has become a challenging task for the researchers. However, the minimum Energy Consumption (EC) and low E2E delay increase the performance of the IoT-UWSN. Therefore, in the current work, two proactive routing protocols are presented, namely: Bellman\u2013Ford Shortest Path-based Routing (BF-SPR-Three) and Energy-efficient Path-based Void hole and Interference-free Routing (EP-VIR-Three). Then we formalized the aforementioned problems to accomplish the reliable data transmission in Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN). The main objectives of this paper include minimum EC, interference-free transmission, void hole avoidance and high Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR). Furthermore, the algorithms for the proposed routing protocols are presented. Feasible regions using linear programming are also computed for optimal EC and to enhance the network lifespan. Comparative analysis is also performed with state-of-the-art proactive routing protocols. In the end, extensive simulations have been performed to authenticate the performance of the proposed routing protocols. Results and discussion disclose that the proposed routing protocols outperformed the counterparts significantly.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s19061313","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,18]],"date-time":"2019-03-18T04:06:55Z","timestamp":1552882015000},"page":"1313","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":14,"title":["Towards Void Hole Alleviation by Exploiting the Energy Efficient Path and by Providing the Interference-Free Proactive Routing Protocols in IoT Enabled Underwater WSNs"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"19","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7064-6796","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Muhammad","family":"Awais","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Nadeem","family":"Javaid","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, Islamabad 44000, Pakistan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3817-2655","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Amjad","family":"Rehman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Computer and Information Systems, Al Yamamah University, Riyadh 11512, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Umar","family":"Qasim","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cameron Library, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2J8, Canada"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Musaed","family":"Alhussein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Engineering Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11543, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Khursheed","family":"Aurangzeb","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Engineering Department, College of Computer and Information Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11543, Saudi Arabia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1109\/COMST.2017.2768802","article-title":"State-of-the-art medium access control (MAC) protocols for underwater acoustic networks: A survey based on a MAC reference model","volume":"20","author":"Jiang","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Surv. Tutor."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"97","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2009.4752684","article-title":"Overview of networking protocols for underwater wireless communications","volume":"47","author":"Pompili","year":"2009","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"152","DOI":"10.1109\/MCOM.2010.5673086","article-title":"Localization techniques for underwater acoustic sensor networks","volume":"48","author":"Mouftah","year":"2010","journal-title":"IEEE Commun. Mag."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ali, B., Sher, A., Javaid, N., Aurangzeb, K., and Haider, S.I. (2018). Retransmission avoidance for reliable data delivery in underwater WSNs. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18010149"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"532676","DOI":"10.1155\/2015\/532676","article-title":"Delay-sensitive routing schemes for underwater acoustic sensor networks","volume":"11","author":"Javaid","year":"2015","journal-title":"Int. J. Distrib. Sens. Netw."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"256","DOI":"10.1016\/j.adhoc.2015.08.023","article-title":"WDFAD-DBR: Weighting depth and forwarding area division DBR routing protocol for UASNs","volume":"37","author":"Yu","year":"2016","journal-title":"Ad Hoc Netw."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Javaid, N., Majid, A., Sher, A., Khan, W., and Aalsalem, M. (2018). Avoiding Void Holes and Collisions with Reliable and Interference-Aware Routing in Underwater WSNs. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18093038"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2061","DOI":"10.1007\/s11276-017-1461-x","article-title":"A reliable energy-efficient pressure-based routing protocol for the underwater wireless sensor network","volume":"24","author":"Khasawneh","year":"2018","journal-title":"Wirel. Netw."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hong, Z., Pan, X., Chen, P., Su, X., Wang, N., and Lu, W. (2018). A Topology Control with Energy Balance in Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks for IoT-Based Application. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18072306"},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Wang, H., Wang, S., Zhang, E., and Lu, L. (2018). An Energy Balanced and Lifetime Extended Routing Protocol for Underwater Sensor Networks. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18051596"},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"28777","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2837108","article-title":"Co-EEORS: Cooperative Energy Efficient Optimal Relay Selection Protocol for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks","volume":"6","author":"Khan","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Coutinho, R.W.L., Boukerche, A., Vieira, L.F.M., and Loureiro, A.A.F. (2018). Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks: A New Challenge for Topology Control\u2013Based Systems. ACM Comput. Surv., 51.","DOI":"10.1145\/3154834"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Jin, Z., Wang, N., Su, Y., and Yang, Q. (2018). A Glider-Assisted Link Disruption Restoration Mechanism in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18020501"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e4772","DOI":"10.1002\/cpe.4772","article-title":"Position adjustment\u2013based location error\u2013resilient geo-opportunistic routing for void hole avoidance in underwater sensor networks","volume":"30","author":"Shah","year":"2018","journal-title":"Concurr. Comput. Pract. Exp."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Nayyar, A., Puri, V., and Le, D.-N. (2019). Comprehensive Analysis of Routing Protocols Surrounding Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSNs). Data Management, Analytics and Innovation, Springer.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-981-13-1402-5_33"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"8504","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2018.2850305","article-title":"Compressed Sensing of Underwater Acoustic Signals via Structured Approximation l0 Norm","volume":"67","author":"Wu","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"696","DOI":"10.1007\/s11227-017-2148-x","article-title":"Efficient routing for dense UWSNs with high-speed mobile nodes using spherical divisions","volume":"74","author":"Khosravi","year":"2018","journal-title":"J. Supercomput."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"843","DOI":"10.1007\/s11277-017-4897-5","article-title":"Energy Efficient Shortest Path Routing Protocol for Underwater Acoustic Wireless Sensor Network","volume":"98","author":"Gomathi","year":"2018","journal-title":"Wirel. Person. Commun."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"39685","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2018.2854276","article-title":"Energy-Balanced Unequal Layering Clustering in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks","volume":"6","author":"Hou","year":"2018","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Iwata, M., Tang, S., and Obana, S. (2018). Energy-Efficient Data Collection Method for Sensor Networks by Integrating Asymmetric Communication and Wake-Up Radio. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18041121"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Muhammed, D., Anisi, M.H., Zareei, M., Vargas-Rosales, C., and Khan, A. (2018). Game Theory-Based Cooperation for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks: Taxonomy, Review, Research Challenges and Directions. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18020425"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Rahman, Z., Hashim, F., Rasid, M.F.A., and Othman, M. (2018). Totally opportunistic routing algorithm (TORA) for underwater wireless sensor network. PLoS ONE, 13.","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0197087"},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Coutinho, R.W.L., Boukerche, A., Vieira, L.F.M., and Loureiro, A.A.F. (2014, January 10\u201314). GEDAR: geographic and opportunistic routing protocol with depth adjustment for mobile underwater sensor networks. Proceedings of the 2014 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Sydney, Australia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC.2014.6883327"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2107","DOI":"10.1109\/TPDS.2012.49","article-title":"Energy-efficient tree-based multi path power control for underwater sensor networks","volume":"23","author":"Xu","year":"2012","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Parallel Distrib. Syst."},{"key":"ref_25","first-page":"775","article-title":"Comparison of Proactive Reactive and Hybrid Routing Protocol in MANETS","volume":"5","author":"Saranya","year":"2016","journal-title":"Int. J. Adv. Res. Comput. Commun. Eng."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"333","DOI":"10.1109\/TVT.2015.2395434","article-title":"HydroCast: Pressure Routing for Underwater Sensor Networks","volume":"65","author":"Noh","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Javaid, N., Sher, A., Abdul, W., Niaz, I.A., Almogren, A., and Alamri, A. (2017). Cooperative Opportunistic Pressure Based Routing for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks. Sensors, 17.","DOI":"10.3390\/s17030629"}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/19\/6\/1313\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T12:39:14Z","timestamp":1760186354000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/19\/6\/1313"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]]},"references-count":27,"journal-issue":{"issue":"6","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,3]]}},"alternative-id":["s19061313"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s19061313","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2019,3,15]]}}}