2026/07/16 by Qiyu Ma, Jiajie Xu, Mohamed-Slim Alouini
Computer Science · Engineering · #eess.SY #cs.SY
Underwater wireless optical communication (UWOC) is an enabling technology for high-throughput subsea networks, yet its long-term deployment is constrained by the finite energy budget of underwater nodes. To address this challenge, we investigate a mobile system wherein an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) performs joint wireless information transfer (WIT) and wireless power transfer (WPT) for a network of randomly distributed sensor nodes. This paper develops \textcolorbluean integrated mission-level framework that combines stochastic node discovery with state-aware servicing. First, we present an analytical model for node discovery based on a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) analysis, deriving performance metrics that include the probability distribution of the discovery distance. Second, we introduce \textcolorbluea threshold-based scheduling framework, termed State-Aware Optimal Point Servicing (SA-OPS), which \textcolorblueselects one of three actions according to the node's real-time energy state: preemptive charging, communication followed by charging, or communication only. Simulations and multi-criteria decision analysis show that, \textcolorblueunder the considered assumptions and parameter ranges, SA-OPS can improve the tradeoff between AUV energy expenditure and network-wide energy health relative to the adopted baseline strategies. The results also indicate that the selected charging threshold can be approximated by \textcolorbluea simple state-dependent heuristic, providing a practical guideline for autonomous energy replenishment in underwater networks.