Deploying charging nodes in wireless rechargeable sensor networks based on improved firefly algorithm

A wireless rechargeable sensor network (WRSN) consists of sensor nodes that can harvest energy from the wireless charging nodes (WCNs) for prolonging the network lifetime. This study deals with the WCN deployment optimization problem in WRSNs. We propose an optimization framework that simultaneously maximizes the coverage and the charging efficiency. Moreover, an improved firefly algorithm (IFA) is proposed for solving the WCN deployment optimization problem. IFA adopts a novel adaptive attractiveness factor and introduces a dynamic location update mechanism to enhance the performance of the conventional firefly algorithm (FA). We compare the proposed IFA with several benchmark algorithms in two different scenarios. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms other comparative algorithms in both accuracy and convergence rate. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.