Title: An efficient data-collection routing algorithm to improve energy efficiency and network lifetime in wireless sensor networks

Authors: Hanif Zafor; Tasher Ali Sheikh; Amitava Nag

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Central Institute of Technology Kokrajhar, Assam, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Faculty of Computer Technology, Assam Down Town University, Guwahati, Assam, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Central Institute of Technology Kokrajhar, Assam, India

Abstract: In wireless sensor network (WSN), data transmission has a serious issue called hotspot problem and can be eliminated by deploying a mobile sink (MS) device. In MS also there are some serious problems like battery capacity of MS, routing problem of MS, and time window for data collection. To improve network lifetime and minimise energy consumption, a hybrid variable neighbourhood search with local search (VNS-LS) routing algorithm is proposed for data collection using a mobile data collector (MDC). The simulation results were performed based on the parameter matrices: network throughput (NT), energy consumption (EC), data collection time (DCT), and packet loss ratio (PLR). The results are then compared with some existing methods, the two-phase energy minimised load balancing scheme (TPEMLB), the heuristic tour planning algorithm (HTPA), and the gravitational search algorithm (GSA). The proposed method shows better results with higher NT, minimum EC, DCT, and PLR than the existing methods.

Keywords: wireless sensor network; WSN; variable neighbourhood search; VNS; local search; LS; data collection; energy consumption; EC; network lifetime; NL.

DOI: 10.1504/IJAHUC.2026.154346

International Journal of Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, 2026 Vol.52 No.2, pp.69 - 78

Received: 14 Jun 2025
Accepted: 13 Oct 2025
Published online: 23 Jun 2026 *

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