An efficient ACO scheme for mobile-sink based WSN

Wireless sensor network includes base station (sink) and battery operated sensor nodes. A sensor's energy is consumed to transmit data to the sink. Thus, a sensor's energy depletes with time. Energy consumption can be reduced by using the mobile sink which communicates between end user and sensor nodes. Mobile sink usage requires efficient reconstruction of routes from a sensor to the mobile sink. In proposed work Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) is used as solution for reconstruction of routes. Idea of ACO is taken from real world ants which find optimal route from source to destination in search of food. Here, ACO Routing uses distance priority communication. This results in improving lifetime of network and minimum energy consumption. Results of proposed method are compared with Virtual Grid based scheme. Virtual grid based scheme routes to latest location of mobile sink with minimal overhead on network. It is one of the optimal solutions for the problem. In conclusion, ACO routing is found to be better than Virtual Grid based scheme.