Power Control in Non-uniform Wireless Sensor Networks Based on the Parallel Ant Colony Algorithm

Energy consumption is the most important problem in wireless sensor networks. Considering the non-uniform network, a new mechanism of power control based on the PACA (parallel ant colony algorithm) is presented for the energy consumption optimization. The mechanism can search the solution space and optimize the route of data transmission to homogenize the energy consumption of the nodes. In the simulation, three different network nodes distribution are adopted and the new mechanism is compared with the fixed power routing method. The results show that the new mechanism can homogenize the nodes' energy consumption and extend the whole network's life effectively.