Metaheuristics-based energy efficient clustering in WSNs: challenges and research contributions

In past few years, wireless sensor network (WSN) is considered as an essential and imperative way for efficient data communication in ubiquitous computing environment along with the fulfilment of objectives such as (i) lifetime enhancement and (ii) energy conservation. Till date, the research findings demonstrate that clustering of WSNs is an effective and pertinent approach. Moreover, designing of energy-aware routing schemes for clustered WSNs is a basic necessity due to resource-restricted nature of these sensor nodes. This study has a twofold contribution. First, the research dimensions of WSNs are explained by incorporating recent work carried out as per findings in real scenarios. Secondly, this study presents a comprehensive survey of existing clustering schemes for WSNs based on metaheuristic techniques. This study is beneficial for researchers of this domain as it surveys the literature over the period 2000–2020 on energy efficiency in clustered WSNs.