A Swarm-based Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks are a new emerging area where swarm intelligence can be applied with interesting implications. In fact, a strong analogy between unicellular organism colonies and wireless sensor networks can be emphasized: a sensor network can be viewed as a "colony" of simple, scarce resource nodes that, autonomously, are able only to perform simple tasks, but all together can accomplish very complex problems. In this paper we propose a routing protocol with interesting properties: self organization, fault tolerance and environmental adaptation. The proposed protocol was inspired by the well known behavior (in artificial life studies) of "Slime Mold". Such colony of unicellular organisms organizes itself in clusters by pheromone generation and evaporation mechanisms. In a similar manner our protocol manages the data traffic in clusters towards the sink nodes using the gradient concept and reaching high levels of autonomy. We analyze the proposed protocol to examine the performances and the adaptation properties using simulation techniques.Sixth IEEE International Symposium on Network Computing and Applications (NCA 2007) 0-7695-2922-4/07 $25.00

Swarm intelligence based routing protocol for wireless sensor networks: Survey and future directions

“…Paone et al [61] have proposed an SI-based routing algorithm which is designed to be fault-tolerant, self-organized, and adaptive to the changing environment. The authors of the algorithm define FA i , the forwarding attitude of a node i as a function of its battery charge b, FA i : b 2 R !0; 1½.…”

Mean-field analysis of data flows in wireless sensor networks

“…A centralised routing protocol elects one or several nodes which control the routing behaviour of the network, whereas decentralised protocols let nodes decide autonomously where to forward messages to. Protocols in the latter category are sometimes referred to as swarm intelligence based protocols [24]. MAC layer protocols on the other hand, control the communication with actual neighbouring nodes.…”

“…As a consequence PCTMC-style models for large WSNs are hardly covered in the literature 1 . Nevertheless, a promising example of a PCTMC-style model was given in [7], where the authors showed how mean-field analysis can be used to investigate the swarm intelligence based network reorganisation of a failsafe network originally described in [24]. Another example was the use of PCTMCstyle models to investigate different sleep policies for WSN nodes [13].…”

A distributed clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks

“…[10] aimed at Ad hoc wireless sensor network and Ref. [11] described one of the major efforts in the sensor network community to build an integrated sensor network system for surveillance missions respectively.…”

“…In Ref. [11], a routing protocol was proposed with interesting properties: self organization, fault tolerance and environmental adaptation. In a similar manner this protocol manages the data traffic in clusters towards the sink nodes using the gradient concept and reaching high levels of autonomy.…”