A Reinforcement Learning-Based Telematic Routing Protocol for the Internet of Underwater Things

Abstract: The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) faces major challenges such as low bandwidth, high latency, mobility, and limited energy resources. Traditional routing protocols like RPL, which were designed for land-based networks, do not perform well in these underwater conditions. This paper introduces RL-RPL-UA, a new routing protocol that uses reinforcement learning to improve performance in underwater environments. Each node includes a lightweight RL agent that selects the best parent node based on local information such as packet delivery ratio, buffer level, link quality, and remaining energy. RL-RPL-UA keeps full compatibility with standard RPL messages and adds a dynamic objective function to support real-time decision-making. Simulations using Aqua-Sim show that RL-RPL-UA increases packet delivery by up to 9.2%, reduces energy use per packet by 14.8%, and extends network lifetime by 80 seconds compared to traditional methods. These results suggest that RL-RPL-UA is a promising and energy-efficient routing solution for underwater networks.