Energy efficient multi-event based data transmission using ant colony optimization in wireless sensor networks

Reduction of energy consumption is the key issue to be solved in Wireless Sensor Networks [WSNs]. To minimize energy consumption and to increase scalability, clustering is a useful and convenient technique. Hot spot problem will be generated when far away sensor nodes from base station use multi-hop communication for transmitting data to base station. This generates higher energy utilization of nearby nodes in the network. To solve these issues and extend the lifetime, we propose a protocol namely Energy Efficient Ant Colony Optimized Data Transmission (EACODT). EACODT divides the network into multiple sectors and in each sector, clusters are formed. Selection of a cluster head in each cluster depends on its distance to BS and residual energy. EACODT makes use of Ant Colony Optimization for energy efficient intra-cluster communication. Selection of a relay node in EACODT is based on (i) distance to BS (ii) residual energy and (iii) queue size. Performances of EACODT are compared with the existing protocols FAMACROW and protocol using PSO. The obtained results indicate that EACODT shows much performance improvement over the FAMAZROW and protocol using PSO in terms of energy efficiency, packet delivery ratio and aggregation gain.