The SUNSET framework for simulation, emulation and at-sea testing of underwater wireless sensor networks

The Sapienza University Networking framework for underwater Simulation Emulation and real-life Testing (SUNSET) is a toolkit for the implementation and testing of protocols for underwater sensor networks. SUNSET enables a radical new way of performing experimental research on underwater communications. It allows protocol designers and implementors to easily realize their solutions and to evaluate their performance through simulation, in-lab emulation and trials at sea in a direct and transparent way, and independently of specific underwater hardware platforms. SUNSET provides a complete toolchain of predeployment and deployment time tools able to identify risks, malfunctioning and under-performing solutions before incurring the expense of going to sea. Novel underwater systems can therefore be rapidly and easily investigated. Heterogeneous underwater communication technologies from different vendors can be used, allowing the evaluation of the impact of different combinations of hardware and software on the overall system performance. Using SUNSET, underwater devices can be reconfigured and controlled remotely in real time, using acoustic links. This allows the performance investigation of underwater systems under different settings and configurations and significantly reduces the cost and complexity of at-sea trials. This paper describes the architectural concept of SUNSET and presents some exemplary results of its use in the field. The SUNSET framework has been extensively validated during more than fifteen at-sea experimental campaigns in the past four years. Several of these have been conducted jointly with the NATO STO Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) under a collaboration between the University of Rome and CMRE.