A genetic algorithm based approach for energy efficient routing in two-tiered sensor networks

Higher power relay nodes can be used as cluster heads in two-tiered sensor networks to achieve improved network lifetime. The relay nodes may form a network among themselves to route data towards the base station. In this model, the lifetime of a network is determined mainly by the lifetimes of these relay nodes. An energy-aware communication strategy can greatly extend the lifetime of such networks. However, integer linear program (ILP) formulations for optimal, energy-aware routing quickly become computationally intractable and are not suitable for practical networks. In this paper, we have proposed an efficient solution, based on a genetic algorithm (GA), for scheduling the data gathering of relay nodes, which can significantly extend the lifetime of a relay node network. For smaller networks, where the global optimum can be determined, our GA based approach is always able to find the optimal solution. Furthermore, our algorithm can easily handle large networks, where it leads to significant improvements compared to traditional routing schemes.