An uneven cluster-based routing protocol for WSNs using a hybrid MCDM and max-min ant colony optimization

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are widely applied in monitoring and communication but remain constrained by limited energy resources. Efficient routing protocols are critical to prolong network lifetime and ensure balanced energy consumption among sensor nodes. Traditional cluster-based routing often fails to achieve optimal energy balance, leading to premature node failures and degraded performance. Intelligent optimization algorithms, including meta heuristics such as particle swarm optimization (PSO) and emperor penguin optimization (EPO), have been applied to improve routing efficiency. These methods enhance convergence and adaptability but typically operate as standalone approaches. Limited attention has been given to integrating multi criteria decision making (MCDM) methods with meta heuristics. Without this integration, assigning precise weights to multiple criteria and balancing energy consumption across nodes remains difficult. This paper proposes a novel uneven cluster-based routing protocol that integrates fuzzy constrained nonlinear programming- variable weight analysis-technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (FCNP-VWA-TOPSIS) with an improved EPO. The protocol first assigns accurate weights to seven multi criteria using FCNP VWA and selects cluster heads (CHs) with TOPSIS. It then constructs the routing tree using improved EPO guided by the weighted fitness function. Extensive simulations show that the proposed protocol achieves superior energy balance, extending network lifetime by 158.0%, 119.3%, and 113.7% compared to uneven clustering routing (UCR), unequal clustering fuzzy logic intelligent algorithm (UCFIA), and fuzzy multi-criteria clustering and bio-inspired energy-efficient routing (FMCB ER), respectively. By combining MCDM and meta heuristic optimization, the protocol advances cluster-based routing in WSNs, significantly enhancing energy efficiency and reliability for real world applications.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) utilizes more nodes to forward messages and information from source node to destination node and these nodes are battery-powered devices. Thus, Energy saving is always vital role of Routing Protocols which need to maximize the lifetime of WSN. Mobile ad hoc networks (MANET) are self-starting and self-constructing multichip wireless networks in which, the assembly of the system deviates vigorously. This is mainly due to the mobility of the nodes. The nodes in the network not only act as hosts but also as routers that route data from other nodes in network. MANETs require an efficient routing protocol that achieves the quality of service (QoS) mechanism. They are not considering the mobility as one constraint for those problems. Because, mobility of nodes causes frequent link failures and high error rates, so it makes difficult to maintain the desired QoS in the network. To overcome those problems, we propose mobility aware routing protocol for MANET using hybrid optimization (MARP-HO) algorithm, which maximizes the QoS in data transmission. The proposed routing protocol comprises of two phases. The clustering process consists of cluster formation and cluster head (CH) selection. First, the energy efficient clustering is done by improved animal migration optimization (IAMO) algorithm. Then, we gather multiple constraints are energy consumption, received signal strength, mobility and cooperative rate from each cluster member. The gathered constraints used to compute the node cost of each cluster member, here the highest cost node act as CH of cluster. Second, we compute routing path between source–destination using improved ant colony optimization (IACO) algorithm. The proposed MARP-HO routing protocol is compared with existing state-of-art routing protocols in terms of energy consumption, delivery ratio, loss ratio, link stability, delay, network lifetime, number of dead nodes and throughput.

In recent years, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have become interesting for a wide range of applications and a hot research area. Cluster-based routing protocols are more adequate for WSN among different types of routing protocols due to the higher energy utilization rate and being more scalable. In this study, cluster-based routing protocols have been reviewed. In addition, the advantages and objectives of this group of routing protocols are sketched out. Furthermore, several cluster-based routing protocols are analyzed in detail and compared according to the several important metrics. In conclusion, the study is summarized and finalized with some directions for future cluster-based routing protocols.

Wireless sensor networks congestion occurs easily due to its centralized traffic pattern. Normally, mono-sync wireless sensor network experiences multiple traffic flow congestion in the dense environment of the network, which leads to excess energy consumption and severe packet loss. To overcome these issues, a congestion detection and alleviation mechanism using cluster based heuristic optimized hierarchical routing protocol is proposed in this paper. Here, congestion detection and alleviation utilize the features of sensor nodes. The congestion is categorized into two types: (i) node level congestion and (ii) link level congestion. The node level congestion is detected by assessing the buffer utilization and the interval amid the consecutive data packets. The link level congestion is considered with computing link usage utilizing back-off step of round robin carrier sense multi-access with collision avoidance. Congestion detection and alleviation reactively affected node/link through cuckoo hosted rider search multi-hop routing algorithm. It has two phases: the cluster head selection and multi-path routing. Cluster head selection is performed through Taylor multiple random forest kernel fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm and multi-path routing is performed through cuckoo hosted rider search multi-hop routing algorithm. The simulation of the proposed method is done in network simulator tool. Here, the performance metrics, like packet delivery ratio, delay, energy consumption, packet drop, overhead, network lifetime and throughput are calculated. The experimental outcomes of the proposed technique shows 11.6%, 18.4% and 28.1% lower delay, 78.2%, 65.4% and 52.6% higher packet delivery ratio, and 29.2%, 37.4% and 40.8% lower packet drop compared with the existing methods, like congestion detection and alleviation using multi-attribute decision-making in optimization-based hybrid congestion alleviation routing protocol in wireless sensor networks, congestion detection and alleviation using hybrid K-means with greedy best first search algorithms in packet rate reduction utilizing adaptive weight firefly algorithm ant colony optimization based routing protocol in wireless sensor networks and congestion detection and alleviation using multi-input time on task optimization algorithm for altered gravitational search algorithm routing protocol in wireless sensor networks.

Applying multimedia to Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) adds more challenges due to WSN resource constraints and the strict Quality of Service (QoS) requirements for multimedia transmission. Different multimedia applications may have different QoS requirements, so routing protocols designed for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Network (WMSN) should be conversant of these requirements and challenges in order to ensure the efficient use of resources to transfer multimedia packets in an utmost manner. The majority of solutions proposed for WMSN depends on traditional layered based mechanisms which are inefficient for multimedia transmission. In this paper we propose a cross-layer Ant based Routing Protocol for WMSN (CARPM) by using modified ant colony optimization (ACO) technique to enhance the routing efficiency. The proposed protocol uses an improved ACO to search for the best path that are satisfied with the multimedia traffic requirements. While making best decision the weightage is given to energy consumption, and queuing delay. The proposed cross layer scheme works between the routing, MAC, and physical layers. Since, the remaining power and timestamp metrics are exchanged from physical layer to network layer. Dynamics duty cycle assignment is proposed at MAC layer which changes according to traffic rate. The presented algorithm is simulated using NS2 and is proven to satisfy its goals through a series of simulations.

Data aggregation plays an important role in energy constrained wireless sensor networks (WSN). Redundant data can be aggregated at intermediate nodes of a WSN reducing the number of messages exchanged and consequently reducing communication costs. In this work we consider the problem of constructing a dynamic and scalable structure for data aggregation in WSN. Although there are many proposed solutions to data aggregation in WSN, most of them build the data aggregation structure based on the order in which events occur. This kind of structure leads to low quality routing trees and does not address the load balancing problem, since the same tree is used throughout the network life. To tackle these challenges we propose a novel routing protocol called Dynamic and Scalable Tree (DST), which reduces the number of messages necessary to set up a routing tree, maximizes the number of overlapping routes, and selects routes with the highest aggregation rate. The routing tree created by DST does not depend on the order of events and is not held fixed along the occurrence of events. DST was extensively compared with two solutions reported in the literature regarding communication costs, aggregation rate and quality of the routing tree. Results show that the routing tree built by DST provides the best aggregation quality compared with other algorithms outperforming them for different scenarios in all evaluations performed.

Inverse transient radiation analysis in one-dimensional participating slab using improved Ant Colony Optimization algorithms

QoSNET: An integrated QoS network for routing protocols in large scale wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks contains small sensor node and processor which have several issues and challenges with regards to Limited Computational Capacity, Energy Efficiency, Path Planning Overhead and many more. Entire lifetime of network depends on efficient energy consumption in sensor network so it is a challenging task to design an Energy Efficient Routing Protocol for wireless sensor networks. Wireless sensor nodes dynamically self-organize themselves without utilizing preexisting infrastructure. Problem becomes more complex if some sensor node having mobility for some particular instance. In this paper we proposed an energy efficient routing protocol for WSN motivated by swarm intelligence of rummage behavior of ant and also covered mobility behavior of node. Furthermore we have combined the fuzzy logic with behavior of ant to take a better decision to find optimal path with less energy consumption. Our proposed algorithm utilize the principle of Fuzzy logic in addition of Ant Colony Optimization to develop energy efficient routing. The performance of our proposed work is evaluated on QualNet 7.4 Network Simulator. The simulation result shows that the proposed technique optimize the energy consumption, decrease RREQ packet and increase the lifetime of network as compare to existing routing protocol.

In this paper, the optimization strategies of routing protocols are analysed with respect to energy utilization of sensor nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Routing Protocols are in charge of discovering and maintaining the routes in the network. Different routing mechanisms have been proposed to address energy optimization problem in sensor nodes. Clustering mechanism is one of the most efficient mechanisms which cater to the requirements of energy conservation in wireless sensor networks. To check the efficiency of different clustering scheme against modelled constraints, we select five cluster based routing protocols; Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH), Threshold Sensitive Energy Efficient sensor Network (TEEN), Stable Election Protocol (SEP), Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering (DEEC), and Hybrid Energy Efficient Distributed protocol. To validate our mathematical framework, we perform analytical simulations in MATLAB by choosing number of alive nodes, number of dead nodes, number of packets, number of cluster heads, as performance metrics.

Over the recent years, one of the most important problems in wireless sensor network is to develop a routing protocol that has energy efficiency. Since the power of the sensor nodes is limited, conserving energy and network life is a critical issue in wireless sensor network. In this paper, first we propose an ELCH (Extending Lifetime of Cluster Head) routing protocol that has self-configuration and hierarchal routing properties. It reforms the existing routing protocols in several aspects and constructs clusters on the basis of radio radius and the number of cluster members. In this method, the clusters in the network are equally distributed. We also suggest a novel clustering algorithm for sensor networks, which lets sensors vote for their neighbors in order to elect suitable cluster heads.

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have led to tremendous growth in the development of sensor technology and offer numerous applications, such as wildlife monitoring, environment, healthcare, military surveillance and security systems. In terms of performance, the evolutions of WSN routing protocols play a vital role in extending the lifetime of networking operations. Due to the limited resources of power in sensor nodes, the design and implementation of an energy-efficient routing protocol comprise a key challenge for researchers. Before, in the case of a static sink, nodes at farther areas from the sink transmit their sensed data at a longer transmission range and die early, while nearby nodes face lesser transmission costs and stay alive for a longer period. This unbalanced energy distribution creates energy holes in ares far from the sink in WSNs. Mobility-based sink routing protocols are proposed to minimize the sub-optimal energy consumption in WSNs, as the sink mobility covers the sensor field, which alleviates the overall load-balancing among sensor nodes. In order to overcome the energy hole issue while prolonging the network lifetime, it is important to determine the optimal mobility pattern. In this regard, we propose the Spiral Mobility based on Optimized Clustering (SMOC) routing protocol and the Multiple sink-based SMOC (M-SMOC) routing protocol for large-scale WSNs. Performance evaluations of the proposed protocols are compared with various existing routing protocols based on static sink, random mobility and grid mobility. Different numbers of performance parameters are considered for evaluation, such as network lifetime, network stability, packet drop ratio, packet delivery ratio, end-to-end delay, average energy consumption, network connection time and the impact of different heterogeneity levels. Experimental results show the benefits of the spiral mobility pattern and how it improves the network lifetime and stability period over the existing state-of-the-art routing protocols.

Reducing the energy consumption of available resources is still a problem to be solved in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Many types of existing routing protocols are developed to save power consumption. In these protocols, cluster-based routing protocols are found to be more energy efficient. A cluster head is selected to aggregate the data received from root nodes and forwards these data to the base station in cluster-based routing. The selection of cluster heads should be efficient to save energy. In our proposed protocol, we use static clustering for the efficient selection of cluster heads. The proposed routing protocol works efficiently in large as well as small areas. For an optimal number of cluster head selection we divide a large sensor field into rectangular clusters. Then these rectangular clusters are further grouped into zones for efficient communication between cluster heads and a base station. We perform MATLAB simulations to observe the network stability, throughput, energy consumption, network lifetime and the number of cluster heads. Our proposed routing protocol outperforms in large areas in comparison with the LEACH, MH-LEACH, and SEP routing protocols.

The multi-source and single-sink (MSSS) topology, in wireless sensor networks, is defined as the network topology, where all of nodes can gather, receive and transmit data to the sink. We consider the problem of finding the joint optimal scheme with consideration of physical, medium access control (MAC), and network layers to maximize the network lifetime (NL) for the MSSS topology in the energy-constrained wireless sensor networks (WSNs). The optimization problem, when the link access is an interference-free time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme, can be formulated as a mixed integer-convex programming and relaxed to the convex programming. According to the transcendental equations in programming model, we take two rather different approaches to maximize the NL in such network. First, based on the result of the SSSS network, we decompose the MSSS problem into the various SSSS issues. Another approach is to utilize the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimization conditions to analytically solve this convex problem. Analytical expression of the optimal NL is a function of the initial energy and quantities of data held by the sources, taking the influence of data rates, link access and routing method into account. Although some dual gaps exist, the analytical result agrees well with numerical result of optimization solver, and can be applied to algorithms in WSNs aiming at maximizing NL.

Routing protocols for wireless sensor networks are important in addressing the various quality-of-service (QoS) issues pertaining to different applications. The most important QoS issues while designing routing protocols for WSN are energy awareness, scalability and network lifetime. However to deal with these issues the solutions provided in related literature have certain inherent disadvantages like high control overhead, low packet delivery ratio and requirement of global location information. In order to resolve these issues, we propose an orthogonal transmission based scalable, lightweight and energy aware routing protocol named as OD-PPRP which does not require global location information and has low control overhead. The proposed protocol OD-PRRP has the characteristics of both reactive and proactive routing protocols and utilizes fuzzy logic and Ant Colony Optimization to identify energy efficient and optimal paths. The simulation results show in both static and dynamic environment, OD-PRRP has better network lifetime, low end to end transmission delay, less overhead and high packet delivery ratio than other state of art QoS aware routing protocol viz. EARQ, EAODV and EEABR.