Multifactorial evolutionary optimization to maximize lifetime of wireless sensor network

Prolonging network lifetime is a crucial issue for wireless sensor networks, as sensor nodes operate on limited amounts of battery energy, and replacing or recharging nodes is still quite challenging. One approach is using relay nodes to alleviate sensors’ energy usage when transmitting data. In this work, we tackle the issues of relay node assignment for wireless single-hop sensor and multi-hop sensor networks in three-dimensional terrains. Traditionally, researchers have focused on solving relay node selection for either single-hop or multi-hop networks, one at a time. We propose MFRSEA, a multifactorial evolutionary algorithm utilizing a network random key representation, a constraint-aware fitness function, and a novel crossover operator in order to optimize for both network types simultaneously. Experimental results show that our method outperforms the baseline in several key metrics.