Fuzzy C Means based Hierarchical Routing Protocol in WSN with Ant Colony Optimization

Data gathering in a timely and accurate manner is the objective of a wireless sensor network (WSN). In envisaged applications of WSN such as detection of forest fire, military surveillance est. battery replacement of sensor nodes are not feasible due to their deployment in hazardous areas and consequently all data routing protocols should be energy efficient. Hierarchical Routing Protocol (HRP) in WSN rotates different responsibilities among nodes with an aim to preserve energy. In this paper we propose a new HRP coined as FCM-ACO for WSN. The deployed nodes are partitioned into fixed clusters by the base station (BS) using Fuzzy C Means (FCM). The cluster heads (CH's) are locally selected from clusters based on residual energy and proximity to BS. Data flows from non cluster head nodes (non-CH) to their respective CH and is aggregated by the latter. An upper chain consisting of the CH's is constructed by BS using ant colony optimization (ACO) along with the selection of a super leader (SL). Data flows along the upper chain being fused at every node except the terminal ones to the SL which transmits directly to BS. We have done extensive Matlab simulations and results indicate FCM-ACO extends WSN lifetime in comparison to LEACH, LEACH-C, PEGASIS and DFCP. The results are shown to be statistically significant.