Resource management in wireless underwater communications

Author

• Walid Khalifa Abdullah Hasan, Edith Cowan UniversityFollow

Author Identifier

Walid Hasan's ORCID record

Date of Award

2026

Keywords

mission-critical applications, energy, security, underwater acoustic communications, intrusion detection

Document Type

Thesis

Publisher

Edith Cowan University

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

School

School of Engineering

First Supervisor

Iftekhar Ahmad

Second Supervisor

Daryoush Habibi

Abstract

The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is transforming subsea communications by enabling mission-critical applications such as precise navigation, emergency response coordination, diver safety telemetry, robust security and real-time surveillance. However, Underwater Acoustic Communication (UAC), the primary long-range medium for IoUT, experiences substantial constraints, including limited bandwidth, long and variable propagation delays, severe frequency-dependent attenuation, time-varying multipath, and Doppler-induced frequency shifts. In addition, open water channels and unattended deployments expose IoUT links to eavesdropping, especially for critical and sensitive applications. These challenges are compounded by tight energy budgets, since recharging or replacing batteries underwater is expensive and often impractical. Ensuring timely and secure communications under these conditions remains a challenging problem.

This thesis addresses these challenges to enable timely and secure communications for mission-critical IoUT operations. This thesis presents a unified approach to managing limited resources in underwater acoustic networks. First, it introduces a priority-aware energy-efficient resource allocation framework that gives priority to mission-critical traffic. Second, it presents an adaptive guard band scheme to mitigate Doppler-induced interference in resource allocation for mobile networks with mission-critical applications, while optimising power. Third, it introduces low-overhead secure communications for mission-critical applications in IoUT. Overall, this thesis presents effective resource management to meet the requirements of mission-critical applications in underwater acoustic networks

Related Publications

Hasan, W. K., Ahmad, I., Habibi, D., Phung, Q. V., Al-Fawa’reh, M., Islam, K. Y., Zaheer, R., & Khaled, H. (2025). A survey on energy efficient medium access control for acoustic wireless communication networks in underwater environments. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 235, 104079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2024.104079

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/5266/

Hasan, W. K., Ahmad, I., Phung, Q. V., Rong, Y., Khaled, H., & Habibi, D. (2025). Energy-efficient resource allocation for mission-critical applications in underwater acoustic networks. IEEE Access, 13, 151681–151695. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3603642

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/6904/

Hasan, W. K., Ahmad, I., Phung, Q. V., & Habibi, D. (2025). Adaptive guard band and power control for resource allocation in mobile and fixed mission-critical IoUT networks. Ad Hoc Networks, 178, 103978 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adhoc.2025.103978

https://ro.ecu.edu.au/ecuworks2022-2026/6610/

Access Note

Access to this thesis is embargoed until 1st July 2028 

Recommended Citation

Hasan, W. K. (2026). Resource management in wireless underwater communications. Edith Cowan University. https://doi.org/10.25958/crq6-va05