An energy-efficient routing protocol based on particle swarm clustering algorithm and inter-cluster routing algorithm for WSN

Wireless sensor network (WSN) hierarchical routing protocols meet the efficient communication of a large-scale network. However, many of them cannot guarantee the optimum choice of the cluster heads because of the lack of comprehensive consideration of the remaining energy of nodes, the distribution within a cluster and the distribution among clusters in the process of choosing the cluster heads. In addition, the single-hop communication among clusters leads to a serious imbalance in the energy of the cluster heads. In view of the above problems, this paper combines the improved particle swarm clustering algorithm with the inter-cluster routing algorithm to form an adaptive energy-efficient clustering routing protocol, referred to as AECRP. Simulation results show that this protocol not only balances the energy consumption of the overall network, delays the death time of the nodes, but also provides more reliable data delivery.