IEEE 802.11 Rate Adaptation Algorithms in Underwater Environment

Abstract

The demand for broadband underwater communications is being pushed by the increasing use of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV) in underwater missions. IEEE 802.11, already used in AUV for above water communications, can also be employed underwater to enable cost-effective, high bandwidth, short range communications. However, the high RF attenuation underwater induces high variations of received power, which may affect the performance of existing rate adaptation algorithms designed for over-the-air networks. This paper evaluates the most relevant state-of-the-art IEEE 802.11 rate adaptation algorithms in underwater environment. Simulation results show the AARF algorithm outperforms the widely used Minstrel algorithm, as well as the CARA, RRAA and ONOE algorithms. Copyright 2015 ACM.