Ant Colony Optimization based hierarchical data dissemination in WSN

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) consist of nodes with limited power deployed in the area of interest. Nodes cooperate to collect, transmit and forward data to a base station. In WSN, clustering and scheduling techniques ensure collecting data in an energy efficient manner. In this paper, we present a Power Aware Scheduling and Clustering algorithm based on Ant Colony Optimization (PASC-ACO). In the proposed approach, energy is saved by scheduling some nodes in the active state to generate data and keep network connectivity, while putting others in the sleep state. Then, ACO algorithm is used for routing data packets in the network in order to minimize the energy wasted in transferring the redundant data sent by sensors in a densely deployed network. ACO scheme can play a significant role in the enhancement of network lifetime by selecting the optimum path to reach the base station. The PASC-ACO algorithm was studied by simulation for various network scenarios. The results confirm that our proposed scheme outperforms other existing techniques such as LEACH, M-GEAR and our pervious work PASC. PASC-ACO achieves better performances in terms of lifetime by balancing the energy load among all the nodes.