Abstract

Background & Objective: A sensor network is composed of a large number of sensor nodes that are deployed to perform measurement and/or command and control in a field. Sensor nodes are battery powered devices and replacement or recharging of their batteries may not be feasible. One of the major challenges with sensory wireless networks is excessive energy consumption in nodes.

Methods: Clustering is one of the methods that have been offered for resolving this issue. Clustering provides a means to reduce the number of wireless communications that greatly increase the life expectancy of the network. In this paper, we propose a novel hybrid genetic-bees algorithm that harnesses an efficient fitness function. This hybrid algorithm can smartly divide the sensor nodes into clusters and thus reduce the energy consumption.

Results and Conclusion: The simulation results show that this algorithm can simultaneously process multiple points in the search grid and also converge to the optimal solution in reasonable time.

Keywords: Battery powered devices, clustering, excessive energy consumption, hybrid genetic-bees algorithm, sensor, wireless communication.