Energy-efficient data gathering algorithm for wireless sensor networks

An energy-efficient data gathering algorithm (EEDGA) is proposed to reduce the energy consumption and maximize the network lifetime in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). EEDGA utilizes the mobile-agent-based model to gather data. Since the access sequence and the number of nodes have a significant impact on the performance of the algorithm, firstly, EEDGA turns off redundant active nodes according to the measurement requirement to improve the energy efficacy. Furthermore, a simple scheme that can compute the minimum domination is used to obtain the active nodes in each cluster. Finally, an improved ant colony algorithm (ACA) is presented to form the route of mobile agent. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can provide less energy consumption and longer network lifetime compared with other protocols.