Energy-efficient and trust-aware routing using quantum K-means clustering and hybrid PSO-SSO optimization for WSN-based IoT

Wireless Sensor Network plays a crucial role in IoT applications, but they face numerous challenges such as limited energy, insecure routing, and inefficient cluster head selection, which lower the network lifetime and reliability. To overcome these challenges, this paper proposes a quantum K-means assisted trust-aware energy-efficient routing framework. The proposed method deploys a multi-dimensional trust model which integrates the direct, indirect, behavioural and energy trust to ensure the node is trustworthy. Moreover, Quantum K-means clustering has been employed to balance the clusters, while hybrid SSO-PSO optimization algorithm elects optimal cluster heads based on trust, residual energy, and distance to the base station. Additionally, trust-aware multi-hop routing strategy is employed in the proposed framework to assure secure and energy-efficient data transmission in the network. The proposed framework is evaluated through the MATLAB simulations, using PDR, throughput, energy consumption, end-to-end delay and network lifetime as the key performance evaluation metrics. The proposed approach improves the packet delivery ratio and throughput by 6.6% and 10.33% respectively, reduces the energy consumption and end-to-end delay by 14.53% and 15.05% respectively, enhances the network lifetime by 24.88%, and provides secure communication, making it suitable for the IoT-based wireless sensor network applications.