Energy aware simple ant routing algorithm for wireless sensor networks

Network lifetime is one of the most prominent barriers in deploying wireless sensor network for large-scale applications because these networks employ sensors with non-renewable scarce energy resources. Sensor nodes dissipate most of their energy in complex routing mechanisms. To cope with limited energy problem, we present EASARA; an Energy Aware Simple Ant Routing Algorithm based on ant colony optimization. Unlike most algorithms, EASARA strives to avoid low energy routes and optimizes the routing process through selection of least hop count path with more energy. It consists of three phases, i.e., route discovery, forwarding node and route selection. We have improved the route discovery procedure and mainly concentrate on energy efficient forwarding node and route selection, so that the network lifetime can be prolonged. The four possible cases of forwarding node and route selection are presented. The performance of EASARA is validated through simulation. Simulation results demonstrate the performance supremacy of EASARA over contemporary scheme in terms of various metrics.