Research on Clustering Routing Protocol Based on Improved PSO in FANET

In disaster response, 2D wireless sensor networks fail to be deployed since a large number of sensors cannot be placed in harsh ground environments. In this case, as the best air carrier for sensors, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are always used to construct a 3D flying ad hoc network (FANET) to realize emergency communication. In FANET, however, node localization and data transmission are great challenges due to the increase in network dimensions and the high mobility of UAVs. In this paper, a novel FANET clustering routing protocol based on nodes location is proposed. Firstly, an improved particle swarm optimization (IPSO) algorithm is designed by fusing variable neighborhood search, and IPSO is used to improve the locating precision of UAVs. Furthermore, the base station (BS) clusters UAVs evenly according to nodes location, and the cluster head is determined by weighting the intra-cluster distance and residual energy of nodes. Finally, the optimal next-hop routing is selected by IPSO according to the link reliability and the distance between nodes and the BS to ensure data are transmitted to the BS timely and reliable. The simulation results show that routing protocol based on IPSO realize more efficient performance compared with the existing schemes in terms of positioning indicators, energy consumption, delay, and clustering lifetime.