An adaptive threshold of remaining energy based ant colony routing algorithm

Abstract

Because the node energy distribution among wireless sensor networks is not balanced and their routing algorithm is trapped in local optimal solution, this paper proposes the ant colony routing algorithm for wireless sensor network based on the adaptive residual energy threshold (ATRE-ARA). It introduces the search angle correction pheromone heuristic function to limit the search path and to reduce node energy costs. The residual energy threshold of the node is adaptive; the formula of pheromone increment is improved. The upper and lower limits of pheromone concentration are set; the pheromone updating strategy is optimized, thereby improving the accuracy of pheromone increment and the global optimization capability and balancing the residual energy of nodes in the wireless sensor network. The simulation results show that the ant colony routing algorithm reduces its average energy consumption by 15.12% and 11.68% in two environments and that its optimal path length is shortened by 1.47% and 1.59%, respectively, thus proving that the algorithm can effectively balance the global network energy consumption, improving the capability of the algorithm to search for global optimal solutions and extending the life cycle of the wireless sensor network.