Sensor networks and sensor-based systems support many applications today on the ground. Underwater operations and applications are quite limited by comparison. Most applications refer to remotely controlled submersibles and wide-area data collection systems at a coarse granularity. Underwater sensor networks have many potential applications such a seismic imaging of undersea oil fields as a representative application. Oceanographic research is also based on the advances in underwater data collection systems.

There are specific technical aspects to realize underwater applications which can not be borrowed from the ground-based sensors net research. Radio is not suitable for underwater systems because of extremely limited propagation. Acoustic telemetry could be used in underwater communication; however off-the-shelf acoustic modems are not recommended for underwater sensor networks with hundreds of nodes because they were designed for long-range and expensive. As the speed of light (radio) is five orders of magnitude higher than the speed of sound, there are fundamental implications of time synchronization and propagation delays for localization. Additionally, existing communication protocols are not designed to deal with long sleep times and they can not shut down and quickly restart.

The International Workshop on Marine Sensors and Systems, MarSS, brings together practitioners and researchers for discussion and work on the emerging aspects pertaining to the new mechanisms for underwater sensor networks and applications.

Protocols for underwater sensor networks
Hardware for marine sensors and systems
Marine observatories and Infrastructures
Underwater wired systems
Underwater wireless sensor networks
Sensors and system for marine neutrino telescopes
Acoustic and radio underwater communication
Aquatic environments and applications
Unmanned underwater exploration
Underwater localization and knowledge acquisition
Scalable underwater monitoring and measurement systems
Fixed and mobile underwater wireless sensors
Aquatic surveillance applications
QoS/Performance in underwater communication
Surface-floating and underwater sensor communication
Access control in underwater networks
Latency effects for critical applications and synchronization
Synchronization and delays in underwater sensor networks
Localization in underwater sensor networks
Advanced underwater sensor-based applications
Sensor and systems for navigation and tracking