Abstract:Routing protocol plays a very important role in underwater acoustic sensor networks. Based on the traditional TEEN protocol, a new routing protocol named HCM-TEEN(Hierarchical Cluster-communication Model on TEEN) has been put forward. The improved algorithm sets a new threshold function on the basis of the process of cluster candidate and the cluster elimination, and then introduces a Hierarchical Cluster-communication model in the period of data transmission to optimize the routing process. The experiment by the Matlab proved that HCM-TEEN performed better than the traditional algorithm on the network lifetime and the network average residual energy.