Underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method and device based on virtual position identification

Abstract

The embodiment of the invention belongs to the technical field of underwater communication, and particularly relates to an underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method and device based on virtual position identifications, and the method comprises the steps: dividing an underwater environment into grid regions of different depths, each grid region comprises a plurality of equipment clusters, constructing a tree network topological graph based on links between the equipment nodes; a unique virtual position identifier is allocated to each network element device based on the tree-shaped network topological graph, and the virtual position identifier is mapped to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, and the VPID-Net is an underwater Internet of Things network based on the virtual position identifier; and for each network element device in the VPID-Net, routing establishment, forwarding, maintenance and recombination are carried out by adopting a communication primitive of an ICN mechanism.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the technical field of underwater communication, in particular, to a virtual position identifier based underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method and device, and a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program. BACKGROUND

[0002] The Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) aims to interconnect underwater devices such as sensors, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), underwater trackers, submarines, underwater drones, etc., to collect underwater physical data and realize real-time monitoring and management of the underwater environment. The core goal is to overcome the communication and data transmission challenges in the underwater environment, and to realize seamless communication between underwater devices and ground devices through intelligent gateways, acoustic communication, wireless data transmission, etc., to form a complete ecological system spanning the water surface and land.

[0003] Although IoUT has broad application prospects, in the highly dynamic seabed environment, IoUT routing protocols face many challenges, including signal propagation delay and possible interference, frequent changes in network topology, and limited network node resources, etc. The traditional Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) cannot be directly applied to underwater Internet of Things. Therefore, IoUT needs new network protocols to support underwater communication.

[0004] The current proposed underwater sensor network routing protocols can be divided into several categories: positioning-based protocols; energy-based protocols; data collaboration-based protocols, etc. Researchers compare various protocols with the characteristics required by IoUT networks and consider that location routing protocols, regional routing protocols, low-power lossy network routing protocols, energy-aware protocols, deep routing protocols, and various variants derived from these traditional protocols can be used as candidate protocols for IoUT. However, there is currently no solution that can meet all the characteristics of IoUT networks. For example, the problem of communication blank area is a major drawback of deep routing protocols; location routing protocols use flooding to deliver routing control information, which occupies a large amount of bandwidth resources, and require each node to obtain its accurate location information, which is challenging in dynamic underwater environments through GPS / Beidou; energy-aware protocols often lead to high energy consumption and high delay due to the detection and balancing of sensor energy and life. In order to save energy, many protocols use reactive routing, which requires route discovery before sending the first data packet, resulting in large delay. Regional routing protocols introduce the concept of multi-level range, combine on-demand routing and table-driven routing, and reduce the range of routing discovery information flooding, but using on-demand routing in the global range still cannot avoid the delay caused by on-demand routing; low-power lossy network routing protocols only support tree-shaped adjacency topology, but the forwarding between nodes must pass through the root node, resulting in decreased forwarding performance, etc.

[0005] Therefore, how to name the node ID of the IoUT network and how to use the node ID to create an efficient routing protocol and dynamic networking are technical problems that need to be solved urgently. SUMMARY

[0006] The embodiments described herein provide an underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method, device and computer readable storage medium storing a computer program based on virtual position identification, which assigns a virtual position identification (VPID) to each network element device, plans the underwater environment into a three-dimensional network topology, and performs hybrid routing and ICN mechanism-based data forwarding through VPID, thereby improving the stability, security and scalability of complex underwater environment networking.

[0007] According to a first aspect of the present disclosure, a virtual position identifier-based underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method is provided, which comprises: dividing an underwater environment into grid areas at different depths, each grid area containing a plurality of device clusters, and constructing a tree network topology graph based on the links between device nodes; assigning each network element device a unique virtual position identifier based on the tree network topology graph, and mapping the virtual position identifier to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is a virtual position identifier-based underwater Internet of Things network; and using ICN mechanism communication primitives to establish, forward, maintain and reorganize the routing of each network element device in the VPID-Net.

[0008] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, dividing the underwater environment into grid areas at different depths, each grid area containing a plurality of device clusters, and constructing a tree network topology graph based on the links between device nodes comprises: according to water depth data, the underwater area can be divided into different levels, each level containing a plurality of virtual grid areas; the surface gateway is used as the network entry device, the unmanned underwater vehicle is used as the relay device, and the sensor is used as the terminal device for data collection and is deployed in the virtual grid area divided according to the water depth, each grid area containing a plurality of device clusters, each cluster containing a root node and a plurality of leaf nodes; the node communication links between the device clusters are established, the leaf nodes in each regional cluster have a link to the root node, the root node has a link to the adjacent relay point at the same level, and at least one or more physical links to a certain relay node in the upper layer area are formed, forming a tree structure of a multi-path sparse routing.

[0009] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the virtual grid area is nested with a plurality of regional grids, forming a recursive regional naming relationship.

[0010] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, assigning each network element device a unique virtual position identifier based on the tree network topology graph, and mapping the virtual position identifier to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is a virtual position identifier-based underwater Internet of Things network comprises: assigning each network element device a unique virtual position identifier according to the position of the network element device in the tree network topology graph; mapping the virtual position identifier to a naming vector matrix according to a specific encoding method; associating the GPS or Beidou position information obtained by the gateway with the VPID of each network element in the VPID-Net, mapping the VPID to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is a virtual position identifier-based underwater Internet of Things network.

[0011] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the virtual position identifier comprises a plurality of components, the prefix component and the suffix component form a one-to-many relationship, and the virtual position identifier of the network element is dynamically updated when the network element changes position, joins a new network or fails.

[0012] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the message packet field of the VPID-Net includes a packet header extension bit, a protocol version mark, a primitive type, an operation type, a random number, a message life cycle, a message packet length, and a message packet valid text.

[0013] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, for each network element device in the VPID-Net, the routing establishment, forwarding, maintenance and reorganization of the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism include: extending the communication primitives Interest and Data of the ICN to obtain the extended communication primitives Interest-Downward and Interest-Upward, Interest-Pull and Interest-Push, Interest-Action; the gateway and the relay node publish the Interest-Downward message, which includes the virtual position identifier, the water depth, the residual energy, the timer setting and the relative coordinates of the node; after the new node receives the Interest-Downward message, it verifies the signature or decrypts the message, selects the most suitable parent node, calculates its virtual position identifier and relative coordinates according to the information of the parent node, and sends the Data message back to the parent node through the multi-path strategy, the Data message including the virtual position identifier, the water depth, the residual energy information and the relative coordinates of the new node, and being signed or encrypted; after the parent node receives the Data message, it verifies the signature or decrypts the message, adds the new node information to the routing table, and sends the Interest-Upward message to notify its parent node of the addition of the new node, and each parent node uploads the routing information of the new node to the upper level by the bottom-up method;

[0014] If the relay node does not receive the message from the parent node within the preset time, it re-counts three times, and if it is still invalid, the parent node is invalid, the relay node re-performs networking, broadcasts the joining request to make the adjacent nodes re-issue the networking invitation, and indicates the modification of the virtual position identifier and the routing table to its child nodes; if the relay node does not receive the confirmation message from the child node within the specified time, it re-counts three times, and if it is still invalid, the child node is lost, the parent node updates the routing table and notifies the upper parent node, and notifies the whole network of the routing information change level by level.

[0015] In some embodiments of the present disclosure, for each network element device in the VPID-Net, the routing establishment, forwarding, maintenance and reorganization using the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism further include: pre-deploying the gateway, the relay device and the sensor before the network element device participates in networking, the gateway is used for managing the virtual position identifier, the relay device and the sensor pre-store the device serial number, the environmental parameter and the security key information; when each network element device is connected to the network, a shared symmetric key is used to digitally sign and encrypt the message, each sensor node digitally signs the collected data using a private key, and a data receiving node verifies the digital signature using a public key.

[0016] According to a second aspect of the present disclosure, an underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking device based on a virtual position identifier is provided. The device comprises at least one processor; and at least one memory storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed by the at least one processor, the device: divides an underwater environment into grid areas of different depths, each grid area containing a plurality of device clusters, constructs a tree network topology graph based on links between device nodes; assigns each network element device a unique virtual position identifier based on the tree network topology graph, and maps the virtual position identifier to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, the VPID-Net being an underwater Internet of Things network based on a virtual position identifier; and for each network element device in the VPID-Net, uses communication primitives of an ICN mechanism to establish, forward, maintain and reorganize routing.

[0017] According to a third aspect of the present disclosure, a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program is provided, wherein the computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method based on a virtual position identifier according to the first aspect of the present disclosure.

[0018] The underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method and device based on a virtual position identifier according to the embodiments of the present disclosure combine hierarchical and regional design of a virtual position identifier (VPID) network architecture, not only solving the problems of topology change, resource management, network recovery and the like of a traditional underwater Internet of Things, but also being adaptable to different water depth environments, and having high expansibility and flexibility. The VPID network significantly improves the reliability, efficiency and fault tolerance of a submarine network through dynamic routing and flexible resource management. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0019] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure, the drawings of the embodiments will be briefly described below. It should be noted that the drawings described below only relate to some embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than limiting the present disclosure, wherein:

[0020] Figure 1An exemplary flow chart of a virtual position identification based underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure is shown.

[0021] Figure 2 is a tree network topology diagram architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0022] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of VPID mapping to IPv6 address according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

[0023] Figure 4 is a schematic block diagram of a virtual position identification based underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0024] It should be noted that the elements in the drawings are schematic and not drawn to scale. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0025] In order to make the purposes, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present disclosure clearer, the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present disclosure will be described clearly and completely below with reference to the drawings. Obviously, the described embodiments are part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the described embodiments of the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without any inventive effort also belong to the scope of protection of the present disclosure.

[0026] Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this subject matter belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the specification and relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. Additionally, terms such as "first" and "second" are used merely to distinguish one component (or portion of a component) from another.

[0027] An underwater Internet of Things (IoUT) system is a complex system composed of multiple heterogeneous networks, including three levels: a perception layer, a network layer, and an application layer. The perception layer, as the bottom layer of the IoUT, is mainly composed of underwater sensor nodes, energy collection devices, GPS / Beidou sensors, relay devices, surface links, unmanned aerial vehicles, and monitoring stations. Its core function is to collect data related to water characteristics, water quality, ecological condition monitoring, and aquatic organisms and underwater objects through sensors and actuators, and transmit these data to the water surface workstation for further processing.

[0028] The network layer is responsible for acquiring and processing data received from the perception layer, including wireless and wired links, the Internet, cloud platforms, and remote connection servers. The main task of the network layer is to implement bidirectional packet processing between endpoints and inter-layer conversion, ensuring data transmission and routing, and ensuring the effective operation of the entire system.

[0029] The application layer is mainly responsible for user interaction and data analysis, including the graphical user interface (GUI), which can identify sensor types, IDs, locations, timing, and other information, collect, store, and process streaming data, and issue necessary commands based on analysis results for task execution.

[0030] Among them, the network architecture of the perception layer can be divided into one-dimensional architecture, two-dimensional architecture, three-dimensional architecture, and four-dimensional architecture according to the networking entities and interaction methods. In one-dimensional architecture, the underwater device works simply and linearly. This architecture is usually composed of sensor nodes such as buoys, and the sensors are mainly responsible for receiving, processing, and sending data to the base station. For example, buoys can be used to detect features in the water, such as water temperature, salinity, and pressure. Data will be collected and transmitted to the back-end system of the buoy within a certain time, and then the back-end system will send these data to the base station or other central control units. The main feature of this architecture is that the devices are mainly concentrated in a single dimension, and the data transmission is linear, which is suitable for simple monitoring tasks.

[0031] Two-dimensional architecture is relatively complex, composed of multiple underwater sensor nodes forming a cluster. These sensor nodes are usually permanently deployed underwater, and each cluster contains an "anchor node" (or cluster head) that is responsible for collecting data from other nodes in the cluster. Each sensor node collects data and interacts with its anchor node through horizontal communication. The anchor node then transmits the collected data to the floating node on the water surface through vertical links, and the floating node is responsible for sending data to the ground station or other control systems. The main feature of two-dimensional architecture is that communication occurs in two dimensions: horizontally (between nodes within a cluster) and vertically (between anchor nodes and floating nodes on the water surface).

[0032] Three-dimensional architecture is an extension of two-dimensional architecture, involving deeper water. It not only includes sensor clusters under the water surface, but also extends to different ocean depths. Nodes within each cluster communicate with each other, and cluster heads also communicate with each other. Finally, the cluster head transmits data to a higher communication layer, such as through a water surface floating node or an underwater robot for data transmission. 3D architecture is suitable for more extensive monitoring scenarios, covering different depths of water, and can provide more comprehensive underwater environment data.

[0033] The four-dimensional architecture expands upon the three-dimensional architecture by adding the participation of underwater robots (ROVs / AUVs). These underwater robots can not only collect information from different underwater clusters, but also forward information to other floating nodes or transmit it directly to the control system as needed. The core advantage of the four-dimensional architecture is its dynamic, real-time underwater data acquisition and transmission, making it particularly suitable for complex underwater environments or missions requiring greater flexibility and processing power.

[0034] This disclosure presents a routing protocol based on Virtual Location Identifiers (VPIDs). By employing VPID technology, it addresses the problems of frequent topology changes, node instability, and uneven resource distribution faced by traditional underwater networks, enabling it to adapt to complex underwater environments. To further illustrate this disclosure, Figure 1 An exemplary flowchart illustrates an underwater Internet of Things (IoT) dynamic networking method based on virtual location identifiers according to embodiments of the present disclosure. Figure 1 At frame S102, the underwater environment is divided into grid regions of different depths. Each grid region contains several device clusters, and a tree-like network topology is constructed based on the links between device nodes.

[0035] Before delineating the underwater environment, a thorough analysis of the target water area is necessary. This includes: acquiring depth information through technologies such as sonar and satellite remote sensing to create a depth map; analyzing the characteristics of the underwater environment, including seabed topography, current velocity, temperature, salinity, and other factors affecting communication; and determining the types and quantities of equipment to be deployed, including sensors, unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), and gateways. Based on the depth data, the underwater area can be divided into different layers, each representing a specific depth range. For example, Layer 0: surface layer (0 to -5 meters), Layer-1: submerged layer 1 (-5 to -15 meters), Layer-2: submerged layer 2 (-15 to -30 meters). Within each depth layer, the area is further subdivided into grids, with each layer containing several virtual grid areas. Surface gateways serve as network entry devices, UUVs as relay devices, and sensors as data acquisition terminals, deployed within the depth-divided virtual grid areas. Each grid area contains several device clusters, and each cluster contains a root node and leaf nodes. Establish communication links between nodes in the device cluster. Leaf nodes in each regional cluster have pathways to the root node. Root nodes can have links to adjacent relay points in the same layer. They also have at least one or more physical links to a relay node in the next layer region, thus forming a tree structure with multipath sparse routing.

[0036] According to one embodiment of this disclosure, several surface gateways serve as network entry devices, using GPS / BeiDou positioning systems for location tracking and establishing communication bridges with underwater equipment. These devices not only handle data reception and transmission but also map virtual locations to physical locations, further enhancing the network's geographic awareness. AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) / ROVs (Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles) act as relay devices in the underwater network, enabling data forwarding across different layers of the underwater network. Sensors, as data acquisition terminals, only establish a one-hop connection with the cluster head and do not participate in multi-hop routing control or maintenance; sensor nodes do not communicate directly with each other.

[0037] Figure 2 This is a schematic diagram of a tree network topology architecture according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. (Refer to...) Figure 2 As shown, a three-layer tree network topology is divided into layers 0, -1, and -2. The surface layer (L-0) deploys two gateways (G-1, G-2). The first underwater subsurface layer (L-1) includes one grid area (Z-1); the second underwater subsurface layer (L-2) includes two grid areas (Z-1, Z-2); each area contains 3 or 4 clusters (C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4). Each cluster contains a root node (CH) and several relay nodes (AUVs / ROVs) or sensors (S-1, S-2, S-3). Each cluster forms a tree structure, where the AUV acting as the cluster head (CH) interconnects with other AUVs / gateways in the same or upper layers.

[0038] It should be noted that virtual region grids can be nested within each other, forming a recursive region naming relationship. For example, grid Z-1 can nest Z-1-1, and Z-1-1 can nest Z-1-1-1, and so on. Different types of nodes can be expanded and adjusted as needed within the hierarchical structure to adapt to the requirements of large-scale underwater Internet of Things (IoUT) environments.

[0039] Subsequently, in box S104, a unique virtual location identifier is assigned to each network element device based on the tree network topology diagram, and the virtual location identifier is mapped to an IPv6 address to obtain VPID-Net, which is an underwater IoT network based on virtual location identifiers.

[0040] Virtual Location Identifier-Based Underwater Network (VPID-Net) serves as the perception layer of the IoUT network. Gateway devices dynamically assign a corresponding Virtual Location Identifier (VPID) to each relay device and sensor. VPID-Net can leverage VPIDs to design routing / forwarding protocol formats for the IoUT network. For example, when routing from bottom to top, each node selects its next-hop relay based on the node closest to the water surface (i.e., in shallower water), thus optimizing for shorter forwarding paths.

[0041] Based on the location of each network element in the tree network topology, assign a unique virtual location identifier to each network element. (Refer to...) Figure 2 As shown, each network element is identified using a VPID. For example, in the surface layer Z-1, the lowest left unmanned surface vessel AUV-4 in cluster C-1 can be identified as L-1 / Z-1 / C-1 / AUV-4; in the second-lower Z-1, the lowest left sensor in cluster C-2 can be identified as L-2 / Z-1 / C-2 / S-1. VPID not only identifies the device itself but also accurately represents its position in the underwater network. This relative position representation is particularly important for mobile devices and dynamic topologies, enabling real-time reflection of node changes.

[0042] In other words, VPID can dynamically adjust according to the complexity of the network structure and the amount of specific information required, allowing a single VPID to contain multiple components. The prefix and suffix components form a one-to-many relationship, and the virtual location identifier of a network element is dynamically updated when the element's location changes, it joins a new network, or a fault occurs. Through VPID, each network element can be accurately located in a specific time and space. When network elements migrate or the network topology changes, VPID can adjust accordingly to ensure network stability. VPID supports the formation of a tree structure through the relationship between prefix and suffix components. This tree structure allows for efficient command propagation, enabling the same node to transmit data through different paths in different sub-networks.

[0043] According to one embodiment of this disclosure, VPID-Net combines the location naming of network element devices in a tree-like network topology with routing paths to support data acquisition, aggregation, and transmission. In VPID-Net, virtual location identifiers are mapped to naming vector matrices according to a specific encoding method, and each network element device can be identified through a naming vector matrix. This matrix includes not only basic device positioning information, such as underwater level, grid area, cluster number, and device number, but also encodes the device's functional type. For example, the VPID of sensor devices L-2 / Z-1 / C-2 / S-1 can be encoded according to the following TLV (Type-Length-Value) encoding rule:

[0044] Naming bit Type bit Underwater level 0010 Grid area 0001 Cluster number 0010 Device number 0001 Device type Sensor / non-cluster head

[0045] Through this matrix encoding mode, the VPID can not only represent the position of the device, but also encode the type and role of the device, and provide more accurate network management.

[0046] In the underwater network, in order to realize the interconnection of the sensor and the ground network, the GPS or Beidou position information obtained by the gateway can be associated with the VPID of each network element in the VPID-Net, and the VPID is mapped to the IPv6 address. Each gateway node calculates the geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of itself according to the GPS or Beidou positioning information of itself when accessing the network, and associates the VPID. By associating the GPS / Beidou positioning information with the VPID of the network element in the VPID-Net, the gateway not only knows its own position, but also provides corresponding geographic information for the underwater data.

[0047] The IPv6 address has a large address space, which can effectively solve the problem of insufficient traditional IP addresses. Figure 3 is a schematic diagram of mapping the VPID to the IPv6 address according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 3 The IPv6 address is composed of 128 bits and is divided into multiple parts, including address type, routing prefix, subnet identifier and interface identifier. The seawater depth, regional grid number and the like can be mapped to the routing prefix. The cluster number of the VPID and the device type are mapped to the subnet part of the IPv6 address. The device number in the VPID is mapped to the interface part of the IPv6 address, which is a 64-bit value. The surface gateway can convert the virtual position identifier of the network element device into a standard IPv6 format through the protocol stack, so that data exchange, remote control and the like can be performed through the existing Internet infrastructure.

[0048] Finally, in block S106, for each network element device in the VPID-Net, the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism are used for routing establishment, forwarding, maintenance and reorganization.

[0049] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, the reactive and proactive combination is adopted based on the VPID routing protocol, the water depth is divided into layers, the proactive top-down self-discovery and networking are adopted in normal times; the reactive bottom-up search for adjacent points is started when the network is disconnected, so as to recover or re-network. The design of the reactive routing protocol can avoid unnecessary network maintenance overhead, especially in large-scale networks. Through the top-down and bottom-up routing mode, the VPID-Net can still maintain high routing performance and good resource utilization when facing different resource constraints and network sizes.

[0050] Before the network element devices participate in networking, the gateway, relay device and sensor are pre-deployed, the gateway is used for managing virtual position identification, the relay device and sensor pre-store device serial number, environmental parameters, security key information. The gateway as the entrance of the network, is responsible for creating, logging in, parsing and security confirmation of VPID information, maintains VPID database, contains static information (such as device type, serial number, preset security key) and dynamic information (such as VPID), also manages the interface with external network, such as the mapping of application layer URL and network layer VPID, location service (GPS or Beidou) mapping and VPID and IPv6 address mapping. The relay device and sensor are allocated a number of gateways before participating in networking, indicating the maximum network set that can be connected. Each network element (relay device or sensor) includes basic information: device serial number, device type, water depth measurement data, channel and signal strength, residual energy, security key, etc. Under the security framework of the network, the device needs to be security confirmed when joining the network. In order to improve efficiency and reduce delay, the allocation and security confirmation of VPID can be agented by the trusted relay node authorized by the gateway.

[0051] In order to guarantee the security of VPID-Net network, especially to prevent malicious attacks and data tampering, when each network element device enters the network, a shared symmetric key is used to digitally sign and encrypt messages, each sensor node uses a private key to digitally sign the collected data, and the data receiving node uses a public key to verify the digital signature.

[0052] For example, each legal network element device is pre-configured with a group key (G-Key). This key is used for symmetric encryption, and all devices share the same group key. When the node joins or rejoins the network, the G-Key is used for point-to-point digital signature or encryption operation of the routing protocol message, to ensure the consistency and credibility of the message.

[0053] Each sensor device uses a private key (Private Key) to digitally sign the collected data when collecting data. The specific process includes: when the sensor device collects data, a data packet is generated, which contains data content and corresponding VPID information (unique identifier of the sensor device). The sensor device uses its private key to digitally sign the data packet. The signing process generates a signature value, and the data content, VPID and signature value together constitute a complete data packet. The data packet (including signature) is transmitted through the ICN network. Network nodes (such as relay nodes, gateways) will forward it to the target node according to the routing information. When the target node (such as gateway or data center) receives this data packet, it uses the public key (Public Key) of the sensor device to verify the signature of the data packet. The public key is obtained through prior configuration (may be found from the naming server). By verifying the signature, the target node can ensure that the data has not been tampered with during transmission, and is indeed from the specified sensor device. This public key / private key mechanism ensures the identity authentication and integrity protection of data, and effectively prevents man-in-the-middle attacks and avoids impersonation of fake data.

[0054] Through the above encryption and identity verification mechanism, the VPID-Net protocol can effectively guarantee the security of data and communication in the network, especially in the scene of large-scale dynamic networking, it can prevent various attack forms such as man-in-the-middle attack, data tampering, etc., thereby providing a secure and reliable communication platform for Internet of Things devices.

[0055] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, VPID-Net adopts information center network (ICN) communication mechanism for routing and data forwarding. ICN focuses on data itself rather than data storage location, thereby improving data transmission efficiency in the network. VPID-Net uses two basic communication primitives of ICN in data packet exchange: Interest and Data. Interest is issued by a data request or query node, and this message contains the identifier of the required data. Data is responded by the owner of the data, containing the content of the requested data.

[0056] To meet different network requirements, the communication primitives Interest and Data of ICN are extended to get the extended communication primitives Interest-Downward and Interest-Upward, Interest-Pull and Interest-Push, Interest-Action. Among them, Interest-Downward indicates the transmission of information from the parent node to the child node (top-down), Interest-Pull indicates that the child node requests data from the parent node (bottom-up); Interest-Push indicates that the child node pushes data to the parent node, and Interest-Action indicates a message that allows the gateway to control the operation of the network element device, such as configuring parameters, starting tasks or device state checking. These communication primitives provide a flexible control mechanism, enabling VPID-Net to efficiently exchange routing information and data between nodes.

[0057] The message packet format of VPID-Net is based on TLV (Type-Length-Value), and the specific fields include:

[0058] Packet header extension bit (1 Bit): indicates whether the packet header contains extended information, for example, 1 indicates that the packet header contains an extended part. 0 indicates that the packet header is a normal packet header.

[0059] Protocol version flag (3 Bits): identifies the protocol version currently followed.

[0060] Primitive type (1 Bit): indicates whether it is an Interest message or a Data message, for example, 1 indicates Interest and 0 indicates Data.

[0061] Operation type (3 Bits): defines the operation type of the message (such as downward, upward, etc.), for example, 000 indicates Downward, 001 indicates Upward, 010 indicates Pull, 011 indicates Push, and 100 indicates Action.

[0062] Random number (Nonce) (8 Bits): a random number generated by hashing is used to uniquely identify each message to prevent forwarding loops.

[0063] Message lifetime (TTL) (4 Bits): the maximum number of forwarding hops for the data packet, when the TTL value is reduced to 0, the packet is discarded, and the value range is 0-15.

[0064] Message packet length (12 Bits): indicates the size of the message body.

[0065] Message packet payload: a variable-length data packet body encoded in TLV, containing VPID, device type, channel, and security signature information. When the payload part does not exceed 4096 bytes, a normal packet header is used. When the payload part exceeds 4096 bytes, an extended packet header is used to support larger data.

[0066] For a received Interest request, first check if the local storage contains Data matching the VPID. If found, return the Data directly. If the same Interest record already exists in the PIT table, update the corresponding channel number to avoid repeated requests. If there is no such record in the PIT table, search the routing table to determine if the request can be forwarded. If there is no forwarding path, discard the request. If the above checks pass, create a new PIT table record to mark that the Interest request has not been responded to. Forward the Interest request to the next hop node and continue searching for the requested Data.

[0067] For a received Data response, first check if there is a corresponding record in the PIT table. If there is no record, discard the Data, and if a matching PIT record is found, store the Data in the local storage. According to the channel number recorded in the PIT table, continue forwarding the Data to all relevant next hop nodes. Once the Data is successfully forwarded, delete the PIT table record to release resources.

[0068] The life cycle of each PIT table record can be controlled by a timer, based on "soft state" management. This means that when the record has not been responded to for a certain period of time, it will be automatically deleted, avoiding waste of resources. The use of the PIT table can prevent flooding of Interest messages and reduce the risk of malicious attacks on the network. At the same time, it can also prevent the forwarding of Data in the wrong direction, enhancing the security and stability of the network. Through the maintenance of the PIT table, the system can effectively track the status of each request, ensuring that the Data returns along the same path as the Interest, thereby simplifying the complexity of network communication. Through appropriate PIT and routing table management, the network can efficiently forward messages to multiple recipients, adapting to various network communication needs.

[0069] In the top-down routing process, the gateway and relay nodes publish Interest-Downward messages, which include the virtual position identifier, water depth, residual energy, timer settings, and relative coordinates of the nodes. The messages are transmitted downward from the gateway to the relay nodes. Upon receiving the Interest-Downward message, the new node verifies the signature or decrypts the message, selects the most suitable parent node (e.g., the one with the shallowest water depth, the fewest hops from the gateway, and the largest residual energy), calculates its virtual position identifier and relative coordinates based on the parent node's information, and sends a Data message back to the parent node through a multi-path strategy. The Data message includes the new node's virtual position identifier, water depth, residual energy information, and relative coordinates, and is signed or encrypted. During the data return process, relay nodes with local storage can save the returned data according to the storage strategy and update the pending interest table (PIT). Once the Data is returned to the gateway, the entire query process ends.

[0070] The routing protocol message carries part of the VPID, which means that any relay node with a routing table can find the routing information in its table to determine the next hop node. When the relay node cannot fully rely on the routing table, it can use the gateway or cluster head (CH) for source routing. At this time, the message header will carry more complete VPID information, allowing nodes without complete routing tables to correctly determine the next hop.

[0071] Upon receiving the Data message, the parent node verifies its signature or decrypts it, adds the new node information to the routing table, and sends an Interest-Upward message to inform its parent node of the new node's addition. Each parent node uploads the new node's routing information to the next level in a bottom-up manner. When the sensor detects an event, it sends an Interest-Push message containing the sensor's VPID and event data payload. This message is sent to the cluster head relay node of the cluster, and then pushed bottom-up along the relay nodes until it reaches the gateway or authorized relay nodes. The authorized relay nodes can choose to store the received event data and possibly return a confirmation Data to the sensor (optional). The locally stored event data can support subsequent query requirements, which demonstrates the VPID-Net's network fault tolerance and anti-interruption capabilities.

[0072] The gateway can pre-subscribe to the event notifications of interest and process in the relay node through event notification filter and push rules. The received event data is filtered and aggregated in the relay node, ensuring that only important events are pushed to the relevant gateway, preventing data flooding. Multicast / groupcast push can be performed for multiple interested gateways, which means that each gateway that subscribes to the event can receive timely notification. The tree topology ensures that each relay node can effectively deliver messages to one or more parent nodes, and as long as the physical link is normal, the message will be delivered to the target node. The random number in the protocol message header can prevent replay attacks, while also helping with identity verification and data encryption, effectively avoiding the loop problem of data forwarding.

[0073] Since VPID-Net uses hierarchical naming, its routing query and storage can be further optimized. For example, when processing a route with a VPID format such as "X-1 / X-2 / ... / X-N", a prefix aggregation strategy can be applied to relay nodes with stronger storage capabilities. That is, the relay node can choose to store only part of the prefix "X-1 / X-2 / ... / X-K" (where K≤N), thereby reducing the number of routing table entries and significantly improving query efficiency. When performing a routing query, the longest prefix match is used to quickly find the appropriate next hop node. For example, the relay node X-K only needs to send the message to node X-K+1, and the subsequent complete VPID matching work can be completed by X-K+1 and subsequent nodes.

[0074] According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, each relay node detects whether it can receive Interest-Downward messages from its parent node in time through a timing counter. If the relay node does not receive the messages from the parent node within a preset time, it re-counts three times, and if it still cannot receive the messages, it considers that the parent node does not exist (i.e., the network is interrupted or disconnected), and the node enters a "new node" state. The node will start a re-networking process, and send an Interest-Upward message to surrounding neighbor nodes through Any-cast. The message is of the type "request to join a new network", and its purpose is to let the surrounding neighbor nodes know that the node needs to rejoin the network. All the neighbor nodes receiving the message enter a neighbor node discovery mode, and publish Interest-Downward messages to notify potential new nodes to join the network and participate in the re-networking, and indicate to their child nodes to modify the virtual position identifier and the routing table. At this time, the node re-computes its VPID, and makes necessary routing adjustments to ensure that the connection between it and the new parent node is valid. After the node successfully joins the new network, it sends Interest-Downward messages to all child nodes to notify them to modify their VPID and update the routing information. The process is repeated top-down (from the root node to the leaf node) until the leaf node completes the re-networking. When the relay node re-enters the network, its child nodes do not need to completely repeat the process, but only need to modify their VPID and routing table according to the instructions received from the parent node. This local repair greatly reduces the delay, operation complexity and energy consumption of the re-networking, thereby improving the recovery efficiency of the network. If the node does not receive any Interest-Downward message, it means that there may be a "blank area" in the subnet where it is located or the network in the area is disconnected. At this time, the node will re-enter the new node state until it receives a network invitation message from a neighbor node or performs a subnet disconnection operation according to a predetermined strategy.

[0075] In another embodiment of the present disclosure, each parent node waits for a Data confirmation message from a child node in time, to ensure the reachability of the child node and the validity of the routing information. If the parent node does not receive the Data confirmation from the child node after multiple timeouts, it considers that the child node no longer exists. The parent node will modify its routing table according to the timeout information of the timer, and delete the path of the invalid child node. Subsequently, the parent node sends an Interest-Upward message to its parent node, to notify the parent node that the child node has been lost, and the message includes the loss information of the child node and the update content of the routing table. This process is propagated from bottom to top, and each parent node will notify its parent node level by level, to notify the entire network of the routing information change.

[0076] Once the routing information is updated, the path from the gateway to the failed node is deleted to prevent unnecessary traffic from being sent to the lost node. The relay node updates its routing table according to the new routing information to ensure that future data packets can find the correct path. After the routing reorganization process is completed, the VPID-Net network can resume normal communication and ensure that it can effectively handle possible link failures and node failures in future operations.

[0077] Figure 4 is a schematic block diagram of a virtual position identification based underwater IoT dynamic networking device according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in Figure 4 , the device 400 can include a processor 410 and a memory 420 storing a computer program. When the computer program is executed by the processor 410, the device 400 can perform the steps of the method as shown in Figure 1 . In one example, the device 400 can be a computer device or a cloud computing node. The device 400 can divide the underwater environment into grid areas of different depths, each grid area containing a number of device clusters, and construct a tree network topology based on the links between device nodes; assign a unique virtual position identification to each network element device based on the tree network topology, and map the virtual position identification to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is a virtual position identification based underwater IoT network; and for each network element device in the VPID-Net, use ICN mechanism communication primitives for routing establishment, forwarding, maintenance and reorganization.

[0078] In an embodiment of the present disclosure, the device 400 can divide the underwater area into different levels according to the water depth data, each level containing a number of virtual grid areas; the surface gateway is used as the network entry device, the AUV / ROV is used as the relay device of the underwater network, and the sensor is used as the terminal device for data collection and is deployed in the virtual grid area divided according to the water depth, each grid area containing a number of device clusters, each cluster containing a root node and a number of leaf nodes; a node communication link is established between the device clusters, the leaf nodes in each regional cluster have a link to the root node, and the root node has a link to the adjacent relay point in the same layer and at least one or more physical links to a relay node in the upper layer area, forming a tree structure of a multi-path sparse routing.

[0079] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the device 400 can assign a unique virtual position identifier to each network element device according to the position of the network element device in the tree network topology graph, map the virtual position identifier to a naming vector matrix according to a specific coding manner, and associate the GPS or Beidou position information obtained by the gateway with the VPID of each network element in VPID-Net, map the VPID to an IPv6 address to obtain VPID-Net, which is an underwater Internet of Things network based on virtual position identifier.

[0080] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the device 400 can extend the communication primitives Interest and Data of ICN to obtain extended communication primitives Interest-Downward and Interest-Upward, Interest-Pull and Interest-Push, Interest-Action; the gateway and the relay node publish Interest-Downward messages, the Interest-Downward messages including the virtual position identifier, water depth, residual energy, timer setting and relative coordinates of the node; after receiving the Interest-Downward message, the new node verifies the signature or decrypts the message, selects the most suitable parent node, calculates the virtual position identifier and relative coordinates of itself according to the information of the parent node, and sends the Data message back to the parent node through a multi-path strategy, the Data message including the virtual position identifier, water depth, residual energy information and relative coordinates of the new node, and being signed or encrypted; after receiving the Data message, the parent node verifies the signature or decrypts, adds the new node information to the routing table, and sends the Interest-Upward message to notify the parent node of the addition of the new node, each parent node uploads the routing information of the new node to the upper level by the bottom-up manner; if the relay node does not receive the message from the parent node within a preset time, it re-counts three times, if it is still invalid, the parent node is invalid, the relay node re-performs networking, broadcasts the joining request to make the adjacent nodes re-issue the networking invitation, and indicates the modification of the virtual position identifier and the routing table to the child nodes; if the relay node does not receive the confirmation message from the child node within a specified time, it re-counts three times, if it is still invalid, the child node is lost, the parent node updates the routing table and notifies the upper parent node, and notifies the whole network of the change of the routing information level by level.

[0081] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the device 400 can pre-deploy the gateway, the relay device and the sensor before the network element device participates in networking, the gateway is used for managing the virtual position identification, the relay device and the sensor pre-store the device serial number, the environmental parameter and the security key information; when each network element device is networked, the shared symmetric key is used to digitally sign and encrypt the message, each sensor node digitally signs the collected data using the private key, and the data receiving node verifies the digital signature using the public key.

[0082] In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the processor 410 can be, for example, a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a digital signal processor (DSP), a processor based on a multi-core processor architecture, and the like. The memory 420 can be any type of memory implemented using data storage technology, including but not limited to random access memory, read-only memory, semiconductor-based memory, flash memory, disk storage, and the like.

[0083] In addition, in the embodiments of the present disclosure, the device 400 can also include an input device 430, such as a keyboard, a mouse, and the like. In addition, the device 400 can also include an output device 440, such as a display, and the like.

[0084] In other embodiments of the present disclosure, a computer readable storage medium storing a computer program is also provided, wherein the computer program can implement the steps of the method for dynamic networking of underwater Internet of Things based on virtual position identification as shown in the embodiments of the present disclosure when executed by a processor. Figure 1 The steps of the method for dynamic networking of underwater Internet of Things based on virtual position identification as shown in the embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0085] In summary, according to the method and device for dynamic networking of underwater Internet of Things based on virtual position identification according to the embodiments of the present disclosure, by combining the hierarchical and regional design of the virtual position identification (VPID) network architecture, not only the problems of the traditional underwater Internet of Things in topology change, resource management, network recovery, etc. are solved, but also different water depth environments can be adapted, and high expansibility and flexibility are possessed. The VPID network significantly improves the reliability, efficiency and fault tolerance of the submarine network through dynamic routing and flexible resource management.

[0086] The diagrams of the flowcharts and block diagrams in the drawings show the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of apparatuses and methods according to various embodiments of the present disclosure. In this regard, each block in the flowcharts or block diagrams can represent a module, a segment, or a portion of code which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical functions. In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the blocks can occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession can in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks can sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and / or flowchart illustrations, and combinations thereof, can be implemented by a dedicated hardware-based system that performs the specified functions or acts or combinations thereof, or can be implemented by a combination of dedicated hardware and computer instructions.

[0087] The singular forms "a", "an", and "the" include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to "a" or "the" element is

[0088] Further aspects and scope of adaptations become apparent from the description provided herein. It should be understood that the various aspects of the present application can be practiced alone or in combination with one or more other aspects. It should also be understood that the description and specific examples herein are intended to be illustrative only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application.

[0089] The above detailed description of several embodiments of the present disclosure has been presented for the purposes of illustration and description. It is apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the embodiments of the present disclosure without deviating from the spirit and scope of the present disclosure. The scope of the present disclosure is defined by the appended claims.

Claims

1. A method for dynamic networking of underwater Internet of Things based on virtual position identification, characterized in that, The method comprises: dividing the underwater environment into grid areas of different depths, each grid area containing a number of device clusters, and constructing a tree network topology based on the links between device nodes; allocating a unique virtual position identifier to each network element device based on the tree network topology, and mapping the virtual position identifier to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is an underwater Internet of Things network based on virtual position identifiers; and using the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism to establish, forward, maintain, and reorganize the routing of each network element device in the VPID-Net.

2. The virtual location identification based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 1, characterized in that, The dividing of the underwater environment into grid areas of different depths, each grid area containing a number of device clusters, and constructing a tree network topology based on the links between device nodes comprises: dividing the underwater area into different levels according to water depth data, each level containing a number of virtual grid areas; deploying a surface gateway as a network entry device, an unmanned underwater vehicle as a relay device, and a sensor as a terminal device for data collection in the virtual grid areas divided according to water depth, each grid area containing a number of device clusters, and each cluster containing a root node and a number of leaf nodes; and establishing node communication links between device clusters, with the leaf nodes in each regional cluster having a link to the root node, and the root node having a link to an adjacent relay point in the same level and at least one or more physical links to a certain relay node in the previous level, forming a tree structure of a multi-path sparse routing. 3.The virtual position identification based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 2, wherein, The virtual grid area is internally nested with a number of regional grid areas, forming a recursive regional naming relationship.

4. The virtual location identity based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 1, wherein, The allocating of a unique virtual position identifier to each network element device based on the tree network topology, and the mapping of the virtual position identifier to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is an underwater Internet of Things network based on virtual position identifiers, comprises: allocating a unique virtual position identifier to each network element device according to its position in the tree network topology; mapping the virtual position identifier to a naming vector matrix according to a specific encoding method; and associating the GPS or Beidou position information obtained by the gateway with the VPID of each network element in the VPID-Net, mapping the VPID to an IPv6 address to obtain a VPID-Net, which is an underwater Internet of Things network based on virtual position identifiers.

5. The virtual position identification based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 4, characterized in that, The virtual position identifier includes a plurality of components, with the prefix component and the suffix component forming a one-to-many relationship, and the virtual position identifier of the network element being dynamically updated when the network element changes position, joins a new network, or fails.

6. The virtual location identity based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 1, wherein, The message data packet field of the VPID-Net includes a packet header extension bit, a protocol version mark, a primitive type, an operation type, a random number, a message life cycle, a message packet length, and a message packet valid text.

7. The virtual position identification based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 6, characterized in that, The using of the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism to establish, forward, maintain, and reorganize the routing of each network element device in the VPID-Net comprises: The communication primitives Interest and Data of ICN are extended to obtain extended communication primitives Interest-Downward and Interest-Upward, Interest-Pull and Interest-Push, Interest-Action; The gateway and the relay node publish an Interest-Downward message, and the Interest-Downward message includes a virtual position identifier, a water depth, a residual energy, a timer setting, and a relative coordinate of the node; After the new node receives the Interest-Downward message, the new node verifies a signature or decryption of the message, selects a most suitable parent node, calculates a virtual position identifier and a relative coordinate of the new node according to information of the parent node, and sends a Data message to the parent node through a multi-path strategy, and the Data message includes the virtual position identifier, the water depth, the residual energy information, and the relative coordinate of the new node, and is signed or encrypted; After the parent node receives the Data message, the parent node verifies the signature or decryption, adds the information of the new node to a routing table, and sends an Interest-Upward message to notify a parent node of the new node, and each parent node uploads the routing information of the new node to a parent node in a bottom-up manner; If the relay node does not receive a message from the parent node within a preset time, the relay node re-counts three times, and if the re-counting is still invalid, the parent node is invalid, and the relay node re-performs networking, broadcasts a joining request to make a neighboring node re-issue a networking invitation, and indicates a virtual position identifier and a routing table to be modified to a child node; If the relay node does not receive a confirmation message from the child node within a specified time, the relay node re-counts three times, and if the re-counting is still invalid, the child node is lost, and the parent node updates a routing table and notifies a parent node, and notifies routing information of the entire network to be changed in a level-by-level manner.

8. The virtual position identification based dynamic networking method for underwater Internet of Things according to claim 7, characterized in that, For each network element device in the VPID-Net, the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism are used for routing establishment, forwarding, maintenance, and recombination, and the communication primitives of the ICN mechanism further include: Before the network element device participates in networking, the gateway, the relay device, and the sensor are pre-deployed, the gateway is used for managing a virtual position identifier, and the relay device and the sensor pre-store a device serial number, an environmental parameter, and security key information; When each network element device enters the network, a shared symmetric key is used for digital signature and encryption of a message, each sensor node uses a private key to perform digital signature on collected data, and a data receiving node uses a public key to verify the digital signature.

9. An underwater Internet of Things dynamic networking device based on virtual location identification, characterized in that, The apparatus includes: at least one processor; and at least one memory having computer program stored therein; When the computer program is executed by the at least one processor, the apparatus performs the steps of the dynamic networking method based on the virtual position identifier of the underwater Internet of Things according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, characterized in that, The computer program, when executed by a processor, implements the steps of the dynamic networking method based on the virtual position identifier of the underwater Internet of Things according to any one of claims 1 to 8.

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