An Energy Efficient Harmony Search Based Routing Algorithm for Small-Scale Wireless Sensor Networks

With the development of economy, technology and the continuous improvement of living standards, the application scopes of Small-scale Wireless Sensor Networks become wider and wider. In Wireless Sensor Networks consisting of sensor nodes with limited energy capabilities, energy efficiency is critical for extending the lifetime of networks, which is the most important goal for routing algorithms. During recent years, many energy efficient routing approaches based on intelligent algorithms such as Ant Colony Optimization, Particle Swarm Optimization have been proposed for wireless sensor networks to balance the energy consumption of networks and prolong the network lifetime. This paper proposes a new energy aware routing approach for small-scale wireless sensor networks, which is based on the harmony search algorithm (a popular meta-heuristic for optimization) and a new objective function model with energy efficiency. Part of the charm of the proposed routing algorithm are the encoding technology of harmony supporting for different dimension and the generation method of a new harmony. The detailed descriptions and performance test results of the proposed approach are included. The experimental results clearly show the great advantages of the new routing algorithm for small-scale wireless sensor networks.