A Backbone-Network-Construction-Based Multi-AUV Collaboration Source Location Privacy Protection Algorithm in UASNs

Underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) are effective instruments for monitoring marine environments and surveying seabed resources, it is important to improve their security protection, including source location privacy protection. Numerous strategies have been presented by researchers to strengthen location privacy, however, the majority of these plans have expensive energy costs. Therefore, a backbone-network-construction-based multiautonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) collaboration source location privacy protection (BNCSLP) algorithm has been enhanced to address this issue. First, the nodes in the network are split into various clusters, and an entire network is segmented into various regions. The backbone network is built using clusters that house the source. To prevent the adversary’s tracking, the AUV alternately chooses alternative backbone nodes and relays the source and fake data. Then, the cluster head determines whether to update the clusters by calculating how similar the data are with nearby clusters. The nearest neighbor technique is used by the updated cluster to anticipate the data and to reduce the energy utilization of forwarding the data packets, resulting in that there is less chance of data packets being intercepted and the source location being revealed. Finally, the AUV replans the trajectory, which shortens the AUV’s traveling path because only fewer cluster heads need to be accessed, decreasing the time it takes for data to be transmitted.