Delay-aware relay node selection for cluster-based wireless sensor networks

Maximizing the network lifetime through balancing energy and lowering the delay is a primary design goal of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In WSNs, the sensor nodes task is to acquire the data from the area or point of interest and transmit it to the sink node via relay nodes timely. Relay nodes must dissipate some energy to perform this task. So, the relay nodes and cluster heads face the challenge of energy balancing. Hence, choosing the optimal cluster heads and relay nodes is necessary to balance the energy among the sensor nodes. In this context, this paper presents a novel clustering algorithm to balance energy by considering different metrics of WSNs, including distance, energy, link lifetime, and delay characteristics—using a relay node, etc.In this paper, a Hybrid Heuristic Data Aggregation (HHDAP) Protocol is used by combining particle swarm optimization (PSO) and improved Ant colony optimization (ACO).Through this HHDAP algorithm, the relay nodes are chosen based on a sensor node's distance, energy, link lifetime, and delay metrics. This work is simulated using NS2, and the performance of proposed and existing works are evaluated. The results show the performance improvements of the proposed work over the existing algorithms in terms of different quality of service metrics. © 2022 The Authors