Metaheuristics for the Lifetime of WSN: A Review

The importance and the possibilities of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are now quite clear, because they can be found in all kinds of applications, from those in our daily life to those in the military. However, the limited energy of sensors, i.e., the lifetime problems of WSN, has attracted many researchers from different disciplines. Several recent studies showed that metaheuristic algorithms provide promising solutions to the lifetime problems. This paper begins with a brief review of the lifetime problems and the basic ideas of metaheuristic algorithms. Then, the detailed descriptions of metaheuristic algorithms for solving the lifetime problems from the perspectives of problems and algorithms are given. Some simple examples for illustrating how metaheuristic algorithms can be used to solve the lifetime problems and their performance are given. Several important open and possible research issues are discussed to provide the future research trends of this area.