An optimal pheromone-based route discovery stage for 5G communication process in wireless sensor networks

The rapid advancement of 5G communication underscores the need for heightened efficiency within wireless sensor networks (WSNs), where challenges such as data loss, inefficiency, and jitter are exacerbated by complex operations. This paper presents the optimal pheromone-based route discovery stage (OpRDS) algorithm, inspired by the natural foraging behaviors of ants, as a novel solution designed to optimize routing processes in the dynamic and demanding 5G environments. The study conducts a comparative analysis of OpRDS against traditional routing protocols, including the ad hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV), destination-sequenced distance-vector (DSDV), dynamic source routing (DSR), and zone routing protocol (ZRP), focusing on key performance metrics such as packet delivery ratio (PDR), latency, throughput, routing overhead (RO), energy consumption (EC), network lifespan, route discovery speed, and scalability. Our results reveal that OpRDS significantly outperforms the conventional protocols, evidencing a 2% increase in PDR, a 5.5% decrease in latency, a 6.7% rise in throughput, an 8.3% reduction in RO, an 11.1% decrease in EC (resulting in an 11% extension of network lifespan), a 10% improvement in route discovery speed, and a 6.7% enhancement in scalability. These findings highlight the algorithm's superior efficiency and adaptability in addressing the robust demands of 5G networks.