Underwater Drone-Enabled Wireless Communication Systems for Smart Marine Communications: A Study of Enabling Technologies, Opportunities, and Challenges

Highlights: What are the main findings? This paper reviews underwater wireless communication methods, including acoustic, optical, and RF communication, in marine applications, and explores the potential of existing underwater drones. This paper examines the opportunities and challenges of hybrid wireless communication systems for underwater drones. What is the implication of the main finding? This paper considers the integration of underwater drones, IoUT, AI-driven data, VR, and DT for smart marine communications. Underwater drones such as autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) are revolutionizing underwater operations and are essential for advanced marine applications like environmental monitoring, deep-sea exploration, and marine surveillance. In this paper, we concentrate on the enabling technologies and wireless communication strategies for underwater drones. Specifically, we analyze acoustic, optical, and radio frequency (RF) approaches, along with their respective advantages and disadvantages. We investigate the potential of integrating underwater drone-enabled wireless communication systems for smart marine communications. The study highlights the benefits of combining acoustic, optical, and RF methods to improve connectivity and data reliability. A hybrid underwater communication system is ideal for underwater drones because it can reduce latency, increase data throughput, and improve adaptability under various underwater conditions, supporting smart marine communications. The future direction involves developing hybrid communication frameworks that incorporate the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT), AI-driven data, virtual reality (VR), and digital twin (DT) technologies, enabling a next-generation smart marine ecosystem.