Tree-Based Threshold-Sensitive Energy-Efficient Routing Approach For Wireless Sensor Networks

The widespread use of wireless sensor devices and their advancements in terms of size, deployment cost and user friendly interface have given rise to many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs need to utilize routing protocols to forward data samples from event regions to sink via minimum cost links. Clustering is a commonly used data aggregation method in which nodes are organized into groups in order to reduce the energy consumption. However, in clustering protocols, CH has to bear an additional load for coordinating various activities within the cluster. Therefore, proper CH selection and their load balancing using efficient routing protocol is a critical aspect for the long run operation of WSN. In this paper, a tree based clustering approach named threshold-sensitive energy-efficient tree-based routing protocol is proposed using enhanced flower pollination algorithm to extend the operational lifetime of the network. Analysis and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm significantly outperforms competitive clustering algorithms in terms of energy consumption, stability period and system lifetime.