Ant-based routing in wireless sensor networks

This paper proposes an ant-based routing algorithm, Ant System-Routing in wireless Senor Networks(AS-RSN), for wireless sensor networks. Using a transition rule in Ant System, sensors can spread data traffic over the whole network to achieve energy balance, and consequently, maximize the lifetime of sensor networks. The transition rule advances one of the original Ant System by re-defining link cost which is a metric devised to consider energy-sufficiency as well as energy-efficiency. This metric gives rise to the design of the AS-RSN algorithm devised to balance the data traffic of sensor networks in a decentralized manner and consequently prolong the lifetime of the networks. Therfore, AS-RSN is scalable in the number of sensors and also robust to the variations in the dynamics of event generation. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm by comparing three existing routing algorithms: Direct Communication Approach, Minimum Transmission Energy, and Self-Organized Routing and find that energy balance should be considered to extend lifetime of sensor network and increase robustness of sensor network for diverse event generation patterns.