Initialization methods for underwater wireless acoustic sensor networks (UWASNs) have been proposed as a subset of other network protocols under the simple assumption that all the nodes in the network can be initialized at once. However, it is generally time- and energy-intensive to initialize all nodes in a UWASN due to unstable underwater channel conditions. To improve network efficiency, we propose the Application-based Partial Initialization (API) protocol, which initializes only the same number of nodes as the number of activated nodes required to run a specific application. Reducing the number of active nodes is also particularly advantageous underwater since the replacement of batteries is costly. To the best of our knowledge, the API is the first approach that initializes nodes partially according to applications. Thus, we investigate the feasibility of the API for a UWASN by analyzing its performance via simulations. From the results, it is shown that the API provides similar data statistics compared with the conventional full initialization that initializes all nodes. Moreover, the API outperforms the full initialization in terms of the initialization time and message overhead performances.
Keywords: application; initialization protocol; partial initialization; underwater wireless acoustic sensor network.