A taxonomy on ant colony based routing algorithms for wireless sensor networks

The recent research trends have shown that ACO based routing is a research topic of high interest in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The literature found survey articles on ACO based routing algorithms for WSNs concentrates only on the parameter considered and method employed for pheromone update and decay in the algorithm. Authors could not find much survey article which clearly explains the content of ants (forward and backward) and parameter considered for pheromone decay in the algorithm. In order to understand the state-of-the-art of the ACO based routing algorithms these two concepts are very important. Hence, this survey article bridges the gap by surveying the existing ACO based routing algorithms for WSNs highlighting the functionalities and contents of forward and backward ants in the algorithm. Further, this article also highlights the parameter and methodology devised to update and decay of the pheromone over the link in the algorithm. The article is organized in two folds; firstly the paper discusses ACO based algorithms which use constant pheromone decay and secondly, the paper discusses the ACO based algorithms which use dynamic pheromone decay. The article also lists the advantages and drawbacks of each discussed algorithm.