Proceedings of the Fourth ACM International Workshop on UnderWater Networks

Abstract

Welcome to WUWNet 2009, the Fourth ACM International Workshop on UnderWater Networks! Underwater networking promises to open exciting new frontiers for scientific, environmental, commercial, safety and military applications. Indeed, rivers, oceans and lakes occupy a central place in the world, and our impact on them is profound. However, networked underwater systems face many obstacles. The environment is harsh both as a communications medium and as a physical environment in which to deploy and maintain equipment. While the challenges are significant, they also present great opportunities for exciting new research and development with a potentially large impact. Since 2006, WUWNet has been a strong venue for underwater networking research, from the physical layer to applications. WUWNet has traditionally had a strong showing of communications and networking papers. This year the PC chairs, in consultation with the general chairs and steering committee, sought to broaden WUWNet to include involvement of researchers in underwater robotics and applications. With the help of the program committee and authors we are happy to present 9 full papers, 4 short papers, and 3 posters that showcase research work in this developing field. We thank the 12 program committee members and 24 reviewers for their hard work in helping to select the papers. Of the 30 papers submitted to the workshop, all received at least three reviews, and several four or five as different PC members weighed in. Two-thirds of the papers were discussed at the program committee teleconference, and from this body 9 were recommended for full length papers, 4 for short papers, and 3 for posters. We are also delighted to include an invited speaker, Professor Robert F. Chen from the University of Massachusetts Boston, who is a project leader at the Center for Coastal Environmental Sensing Networks (CESN).