Network congestion is a key challenge in resource-constrained networks, particularly those with limited bandwidth to accommodate high-volume data transmission, which causes unfavorable quality of service, including effects such as packet loss and low throughput. This challenge is crucial in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with restrictions and constraints, including limited computing power, memory, and transmission due to self-contained batteries, which limit sensor node lifetime. Determining a path to avoid congested routes can prolong the network. Thus, we present a path determination architecture for WSNs that takes congestion into account. The architecture is divided into 3 stages, excluding the final criteria for path determination: (1) initial path construction in a top-down hierarchical structure, (2) path derivation with energy-aware assisted routing, and (3) congestion prediction using exponential smoothing. With several factors, such as hop count, remaining energy, buffer occupancy, and forwarding rate, we apply fuzzy logic systems to determine proper weights among those factors in addition to optimizing the weight over the membership functions using a bat algorithm. The simulation results indicate the superior performance of the proposed method in terms of high throughput, low packet loss, balancing the overall energy consumption, and prolonging the network lifetime compared to state-of-the-art protocols.
Improving Decision-Making for Fuzzy Logic-Based Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks
