Energy Efficient Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks based on Ant Colony Optimization

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN’s) have become an important and challenging research area in recent years. Wireless Sensor Networks consisting of nodes with limited power are deployed to gather useful information from the field. In WSNs it is critical to collect the information in an energy efficient manner. Ant Colony Optimization, a swarm intelligence based optimization technique, has been successfully used in network  routing. In this paper, we introduce a heuristic way to reduce energy consumption in WSNs routing process using Ant Colony Optimization. We introduce three Ant Colony Optimization algorithms, the Ant System, Ant Colony System and improved Ant System and their  application in WSN routing process. The simulation results show that Ant Colony Optimization is an effective way to reduce energy consumption and maximize WSN lifetime. Keywords :- Ant colony optimization , Delay , Energy consumption, Routing , Routing protocols, Sensors , Wireless sensor networks.