Bio-Inspired Energy-Efficient Cluster-Based Routing Protocol for the IoT in Disaster Scenarios

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a promising technology for sensing and monitoring the environment to reduce disaster impact. Energy is one of the major concerns for IoT devices, as sensors used in IoT devices are battery-operated. Thus, it is important to reduce energy consumption, especially during data transmission in disaster-prone situations. Clustering-based communication helps reduce a node's energy decay during data transmission and enhances network lifetime. Many hybrid combination algorithms have been proposed for clustering and routing protocols to improve network lifetime in disaster scenarios. However, the performance of these protocols varies widely based on the underlying network configuration and the optimisation parameters considered. In this research, we used the clustering parameters most relevant to disaster scenarios, such as the node's residual energy, distance to sink, and network coverage. We then proposed the bio-inspired hybrid BOA-PSO algorithm, where the Butterfly Optimisation Algorithm (BOA) is used for clustering and Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) is used for the routing protocol. The performance of the proposed algorithm was compared with that of various benchmark protocols: LEACH, DEEC, PSO, PSO-GA, and PSO-HAS. Residual energy, network throughput, and network lifetime were considered performance metrics. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm effectively conserves residual energy, achieving more than a 17% improvement for short-range scenarios and a 10% improvement for long-range scenarios. In terms of throughput, the proposed method delivers a 60% performance enhancement compared to LEACH, a 53% enhancement compared to DEEC, and a 37% enhancement compared to PSO. Additionally, the proposed method results in a 60% reduction in packet drops compared to LEACH and DEEC, and a 30% reduction compared to PSO. It increases network lifetime by 10-20% compared to the benchmark algorithms.