Mobile sink-based data collection in event-driven wireless sensor networks using a modified ant colony optimization

The hotspot problem is one of the primary challenges in the wireless sensor networks (WSNs) because it isolates the sink node from the remaining part of the WSN. A mobile sink (MS)-based data acquisition strategy mitigates the hotspot problem, but the traditional MS-based data gathering approaches do not resolve the issue. However, the conventional techniques follow a fixed order of visits and static traversal of the MS. In this context, this paper uses a modified version of the ant colony optimization strategy for the data collected through a MS to mitigate the hotspot problem in the WSNs while improving the energy efficiency, network lifetime, throughput by reducing the packet loss and delay. In our work, we initially construct a forwarded load spanning tree to estimate the freight of each node in the WSN. Further, we choose RPs and their path simultaneously using the modified ACO algorithm by considering the forward loads, remaining energy, distance, etc. The proposed work also adopts the virtual RP selection strategy void unnecessary data exchanges between the nodes and RPs. Hence, it reduces the burden on relay nodes and optimize the energy usage among the nodes. We compare our approach with the recent ACO-based algorithms, and our approach outperforms them.