ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses cooperative communication on medium access protocols for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UWSN). The conditions of the aquatic environment impose great difficulties to communication. Acoustic waves have been adopted by both industry and academia as a standard to underwater communication. However, acoustic communication is still challenging, and is characterized by three major issues: the limited and distance-dependent bandwidth, the multipath fading varied by time, and the low speed of sound in water when compared with radio frequency. Acoustic communication in the aquatic environment presents high error rate, low throughput, and low bandwidth. The chapter proposes COoperative Protocol for PERvasive Underwater Acoustic Networks (COPPER) as a cooperative UWSN communication protocol that takes into account both sublayers of the data link layer: the media access control and the logical link control. It reviews the literature on cooperation in underwater acoustic sensor networks.
