ABC-Based Optimization of Cluster Head Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks

There are several advantages of using Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) compared to wired sensor networks, such as lower cost, easier deployment, and better scalability. WSNs are employed in many fields such as medicine, industry, and economics, among others. As the use of WSNs grows in a number of applications, further work is being done on research and development of new methods to enhance their performance. Selecting the proper routing protocol is a significant consideration and an important task for all WSN applications. Many pieces of research focused on the routing problem which can contribute to the improvement of WSN lifetime and problem-solving techniques. This paper, however, discusses the various existing optimization techniques, including numerous modifications to the LEACH protocol. It then conducts a series of simulations to notice the difference between utilizing LEACH alone and LEACH with the ABC optimization algorithm. The purpose of these experiments is to prove the improvement made by the ABC on the residual energy which is reflected positively in the number of received packets and minimize the dead nodes. This will demonstrate how to optimize WSN system towards energy conservation. LEACH with ABC revealed much better results than LEACH on its own. This indicates one possible optimization technique that limits dead nodes and increases overall residual energy usage and the network lifetime. Many scenarios are simulated to validate the improvement of the WSN performances.