## 4 Performance Evaluation
### Result Evaluation
#### 4.3.9 Comparison Analysis with Recent MAC Protocols  
Here, we compare our proposed MAC protocol with the very recently proposed MAC protocols for UWSNs and UAWCNs. Our proposed system demonstrates superior performance compared to the existing DR-ALOHA-Q [60] and MACA-Q protocols. This superiority can be attributed to several key factors that enhance channel utilization and overall network efficiency. Firstly, our proposed system achieves consistently higher channel utilization, as evidenced by the green line in Figure 23. This indicates that our protocol can handle more data traffic and make better use of available bandwidth, which is critical in the bandwidth-constrained underwater environment. The higher channel utilization means that more data packets are successfully transmitted without collisions, leading to more efficient use of network resources. Secondly, the stability of our proposed system is notable. Unlike MACA-Q, which exhibits significant fluctuations and a lower overall channel utilization, our protocol maintains a steady performance. This stability is crucial for applications requiring reliable data transmission, such as environmental monitoring and underwater exploration. The reduction in packet collisions and retransmissions in our protocol translates to lower energy consumption, extending the operational life of the network nodes, which is a crucial factor in UWCNs where battery replacement or recharging is impractical. Lastly, compared to DR-ALOHA-Q, our proposed system reaches its peak performance more rapidly and maintains it over time. This rapid convergence to optimal performance is beneficial in dynamic underwater environments where conditions can change unpredictably. The ability to quickly adapt and maintain high performance ensures that the network remains functional and efficient despite varying underwater conditions. Furthermore, our proposed system demonstrates a clear advantage over the existing DR-ALOHA-Q and MACA-Q protocols in terms of channel utilization, as shown in Figure 24. This superiority is evident across various numbers of network nodes, highlighting the robustness and efficiency of our approach. Our proposed system consistently achieves higher channel utilization, maintaining values above 0.55 Erlang even as the number of network nodes increases from 5 to 40. This indicates that our protocol efficiently manages network traffic and minimizes collisions, which is critical in the bandwidth-limited underwater environment. High channel utilization ensures that the network can support more data transmission activities simultaneously, enhancing overall communication efficiency. In comparison, the DR-ALOHA-Q protocol shows a peak in channel utilization at around 20 nodes but then experiences a decline as the number of nodes increases. This suggests that DR-ALOHA-Q  
Figure 23: Channel utilization vs. time blocks. may suffer from increased contention and collisions as the network density grows, leading to inefficiencies. The MACA-Q protocol performs even worse, with consistently lower channel utilization values, peaking around 20 nodes but failing to sustain high performance with further increases in network size. Our proposed system's ability to maintain high channel utilization despite the growing number of nodes is particularly beneficial for UWCNs, where expanding the network size is often necessary to cover larger areas or increase the number of data collection points. The superior performance can be attributed to the optimized handling of transmission scheduling and collision avoidance, which are critical in underwater communication due to the high propagation delays and limited available bandwidth. Moreover, the stability and predictability of our proposed system's performance make it a reliable choice for critical applications such as environmental monitoring, military surveillance, and underwater exploration.