Controlling Congestion in Wireless Sensor Networks Through Imperialist Competitive Algorithm

Congestion control is one of the most important in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) due to inherent limited resources. In WSNs congestion leads to the loss of information and the limited available energy of the nodes. Hence, it is essential that congestion be controlled. In this paper, a method is proposed for preventing the occurrence of congestion among sensor nodes. The proposed method used clustering and hierarchical structure for producing a network topology. That is, data is firstly distributed in the environment; then, according to Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA) and the available parameters, clusters are produced. After the establishment of clusters, nodes known as master nodes are selected for each of the clusters which are responsible for receiving information from nodes within the cluster and also transmitting information to the sink node. It should be noted that this procedure is carried out stepwise. In case congestion occurs in any of the target nodes, using the proposed solution, an alternative route is considered for the respective node. Simulation results in Matlab software indicated that the proposed method was able to optimize packet delivery rate, throughput and reduce energy consumption.