Pervasive and Mobile Computing 85 (2022) 101642

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Pervasive and Mobile Computing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pmc

A fault tolerant optimal relay node selection algorithm for

Wireless Sensor Networks using modified PSO
∗
Pogula Sreedevi , Dr S. Venkateswarlu
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, Deemed to be
University, Vaddeswaram, Andhra Pradesh, India

article info a b s t r a c t

Article history: Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have energy-constraints that restricts to achieve
Received 27 February 2022 prolonged network lifetime. To optimize energy consumption of sensor nodes, clustering
Received in revised form 16 May 2022 is one of the efficient techniques for minimization of energy conservation in WSNs.
Accepted 19 June 2022
This technique sends the collected data towards the SINK based on cluster head (CH)
Available online 28 June 2022
nodes that leads to the saving of energy. WSNs have been faced a crucial issue of
Keywords: fault tolerance and the overall data communication is collapsed due to the failure of
Energy consumption cluster head. Various fault-tolerance clustering methods are available for WSNs, but they
Aggregator nodes are not selected the backup nodes properly. The backup nodes’ closeness or location
Inter-cluster data aggregation to the other remaining nodes is not considered in these methods. They may increase
Backup cluster heads network overhead with the backup nodes accessibility. A fault-tolerance cluster-based
Fault tolerance routing method is presented in this paper that aims on providing fault tolerance for relay
selection in addition to the data aggregation method for clustered WSNs. The proposed
method utilizes backup mechanism & the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to achieve
this. Based on the distance from sink, residual energy, and link delay parameters, the
CHs are chosen and the network is categorized into the clusters. The Backup CHs
are selected by estimating the centrality among the nodes. As a part of intra-cluster
communication for reducing the aggregation overhead among CHs, the Aggregator (AG)
nodes are deployed in every cluster. So that they act as the bridge between the member
nodes and CHs. These AG nodes aggregates the information from member nodes and
deliver it to the CHs. The PSO with modified fitness function is used to identify the
best relays between AG and member nodes. The proposed mechanism is compared
with existing techniques such as EM-LEACH AI-Sodairi and Ouni (2018), QEBSR Rathee
et al. (2019), QOS-IHC Singh and Singh (2019), and ML-SEEP Robinson et al. (2019). The
simulation results proved that the proposed mechanism reduces overhead by 55% and
improve the energy consumption & throughput by 40% & 60% respectively.
© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

The WSNs playing a very significant role in the 21st century [1]. A huge amount of increasingly significant applications
is run by WSN. The lower cost, battery-powered sensor nodes are deployed physically in hostile region for collecting

∗ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sreedevipogula37@gmail.com (P. Sreedevi), somu23@kluniversity.in (Dr S. Venkateswarlu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmcj.2022.101642
1574-1192/© 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
P. Sreedevi and Dr S. Venkateswarlu Pervasive and Mobile Computing 85 (2022) 101642

Fig. 1. A Clustered WSN.

beneficial data as well as transmitting it via wireless links towards the sink nodes. The sensor nodes communicate either
in a direct or an indirect way with the sink. Controlled energy resources are allotted to the nodes where the major
issues of WSNs are represented. By considering the significant factors such as energy effectiveness, robust self-association,
clustering, as well as routing protocols the energy is conserved, and the network lifespan is increased.
The sensor nodes’ direct communication for longer distances [2–6] is inhibited by the constrained energy as well as the
communicating abilities of a sensor node. Thus, a multi-hop communication model is followed by the data transmission
from source to sink nodes. Establishing a new energy-balancing routing path where network lifespan is increased is the
major issue in this situation. A quality of service (QoS) guarantee [7–13] is required by several mission-critical and real-
time implementations besides the increment in the lifetime of the network. Moreover, safety is a major challenge in WSNs
since the neglected activities as well as the undependable render sensor nodes are exposed to attacks [3,12–15].
The presentation of several power-saving approaches was made during the last decades. Several authors have proposed
various clustering protocols [16]. Fig. 1 represents the general architecture of a clustered WSN.
The CHs handle the additional work of data collection along with the data handling in the clustered WSNs. The sensor
nodes transmit the unwanted or duplicate data using the CHs based on the data fusion. The CHs are operated on the
available battery power. However, it requires to improve the power consumption for improved the network lifetime. The
sensor nodes have only limited source of energy. The aggregated data may send by CHs to another CH or towards the BS
directly depends on the availability and network structure. The power of CH is directly proportional to its capability of
data processing. The failure of CHs affects the dependent node and collapse its entire operation. The sensor nodes need
to look alternative nodes to resume the data transmission in case any intermediate node is failed. It creates additional
overhead to the newly selected nodes and on the whole network.
Two different challenges involved in WSNs are energy efficiency and fault tolerance. The nodes’ lifetime is increased
by minimizing the energy consumption in WSNs. The clustering & duty cycling strategies impacts in the minimization of
energy consumption. Different clustering techniques have been proposed [17–20] in the past with the aim of achieving
the energy efficiency of sensor networks. Because of the effective correlation and data fusion, the consumption of
energy reduces in the clustered network. Many researches have been done using duty cycle to enhance the energy
efficiency [21–24].
The key issues noticed so far in the WNS are energy shortage, fast discharge of the batteries and failure transmission.
Hence, to increase the node survivability & save more energy, the faults should be minimized and fault tolerance should
be provided in WSNs. In fault tolerance, two steps are restoration and failure detection. The node performance supervision
is used to identify the faults in the detection phase, and in the second stage, the network function failure avoids by using
redundancy or other techniques. Energy efficiency of a network is achieved using different approaches, but most of them
majorly failed to consider fault tolerance problem, even though knowing the fact that the WSNs are prone to fault most
often.
To address the aforementioned issues, here we introduce a new fault tolerance technique with improved data
aggregation and relay selection technique. Two different phases involved in the proposed technique such as fault tolerant
clustering & optimal relay node selection for data aggregation. By using the criteria’s distance to BS, link delay and residual
energy, the selection of CHs is made in the first phase. As a part of intra-cluster communication, for reducing the data
aggregation overhead in CHs, the Aggregator (AG) nodes are deployed in every cluster. So that they act as the bridge
between the member nodes and CHs. These AG nodes aggregates the information that is received from member nodes
and deliver it to the CHs. The PSO with modified fitness function is used to identify the best relays between AG and
member nodes.
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The proposed mechanism provides fault tolerance in the following two conditions. 1. Fault tolerance when CH fails. 2.
Fault tolerance when the route fails. When the CH fails, the data transmission occurring in the network is disturbed and
there are huge chances of the data being dropped without reaching their estimated destination. This will lead to serious
problems where the data are sensitive and need to be processed on time, so there must be a solution to address this
issue. Also, data transmission can be disturbed by transmitting the data packets through inappropriate relay nodes. Our
proposed fault tolerance mechanism addresses these issues using backup CHs and efficient relay node selection. The CHs
are selected using multiple metrics like distance to BS, link delay, and residual energy. The node centrality is considered
for BKCH selection. To reduce the overhead caused by data aggregation in every CHs, our method introduces a special
node called Aggregator (AG) nodes for data aggregation. Also, to manage the route failures during data transmission, the
FTOR-ModPSO ensures the fair selection of relay nodes using fitness evaluation of the nodes.
The contribution and advantages of the proposed protocol:

• The aggregator nodes perform data aggregation at every cluster, so the overhead incurred to CHs due to aggregation
is drastically reduced.
• The minimized overhead in the network optimizes the energy utilization rate in both sensor nodes and their
respective CHs.
• The appropriate relay node selection mechanism ensures a reliable path between the communicating nodes;
therefore, the possibility of data drops due to route failure is avoided.
• The proposed method provides fault tolerance in case of CH failure and ensures an uninterrupted data transmission
using backup CHs.

In sum, the scope of this paper is providing a light-weight and effective fault tolerance to WSNs by introducing and Backup
CHs (BKCH) as fault tolerance for clustering where the data are aggregated by special Aggregator nodes (AG) to reduce
the data aggregation overhead. Data communication through optimal relay nodes is managed by PSO fitness function.
The remaining part of the paper is categorized into below sections as follows: The relevant research for the proposed
work is explored in Section 2. The proposed protocol, modified PSO relay selection, routing phase (intra-cluster routing
and inter-cluster routing), redesigned CH selection criteria, and clustering phase have been described in Section 3. The
experimental results of a proposed approach demonstrate in Section 4 and the conclusion of a proposed work is discussed
in Section 5.

2. Literature survey

Some cluster-based fault-tolerant algorithms for energy efficiency have been reviewed in this section.
In [25], the authors presented the fault retrieval architecture and fault tolerance framework for WSNs. It involves three
different phases, such as fault identification, detection, and retrieval. For each node, the neighborhood table is designed
in the detection phase while evaluating the nodes. Then, the average value of neighbors is compared by the nodes with
their own table values for performing the evaluation to detect the node faults. The fault prediction is achieved by using
the nodes’ residual energy. The fault prediction is achieved using the nodes’ residual energy. The nodes which are having
energy level below threshold share their energy level to the neighbor nodes and look for high energy level nodes. The base
station automatically selects the CH and the organizer nodes using the technique recommended in [26]. By depending
on the energy, efficiency, and power, the CH and the organizer node selection mechanism is implemented. A new CH is
need to be selected by the organizer node when a CH failure occurs. Based on the time slot, the data is transmitted by
each node in a particular succession by using the channel access technique, i.e. TDMA. The cluster nodes transmit their
residual energy to their respective CHs whenever the data packets are sent. For avoid packets collision, CSMA technique
is incorporated by the CH while data transmission to BS upon data aggregation. In conclusion, the CH that has higher
level of residual energy is selected by the organizer node. In [27], the distributed algorithm has been presented for fault
tolerance and energy efficient routing for WSNs. The linear programming has been incorporated for balancing the nodes’
energy consumption. To estimate the minimum and maximum path cost, the linear function has been applied. First the
CHs are selected and the distance from BS is determined. For maximizing the network lifetime, the energy of the next CHs
is chosen to reach the destination. In [28], the approach of Bayesian modeling has been incorporated for WSNs. The trust
index and virtual community are associated with each node that computes the node’s trustworthiness in the community.
Every node has trust value that ranging between 0 and 1. The node is considered as faulty and untrustworthy when the
trust value is smaller compared to the threshold. Based on the new observations, the node’s trust value is updated by
using the particle filter algorithm. In [29], an algorithm is suggested to improve the HEED algorithm for increasing the
fault tolerance routing and network reliability. According to the distance to the BS and the most residual energy, the CH
is selected in HEED algorithm. The high distance between the nodes and BS leads to larger size clusters with smaller
amount of CHs. The Gabriel graph is incorporated for CHs distribution across the network. It is used to create the paths
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between source and destination. Then, the best path is chosen for data transmission. In [30], an algorithm with the similar
performance of LEACH protocol is suggested. In each round a backup for the CHs are required in this method. The data
transmission is performed by the nodes towards the main CHs and the collected data is aggregated at each CHs. The
performance of nodes is validated by the backup node during the transmission of data from cluster members to the CH.
When the responses are not received upon completion of three rounds, the CH failure is advertised by the backup.
In [31], the IDFCA algorithm was discussed for improving the fault tolerance and prolonging the network lifetime.
The node is selected as CH when it includes the highest residual energy while determining the distance based on the cost
function. The booting process is initiated in the initial stage and unique identifiers are allocated. A warning message is sent
by the algorithm and the data such as identifier, the distance to BS, and residual energy are saved. The data transmission
to the BS is performed by the next CH if a CH is found faulty.
AI-Sodairi et al. [32] was analyzed the LEACH-based protocols and the low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy
(LEACH) efficiency within the lifespan and energy constraints extension in the WSNs. Energy consumption is reduced
and balanced by proposing the improved protocol of LEACH clustering, i.e. enhanced multi-hop LEACH which allows the
enhanced packet delivery in addition to the lifespan of the network within WSNs. Moreover, the shortcoming of LEACH
protocol is presented in this approach. Initially, the novel rules to select the CH in addition to the round time calculating
depending upon residual energy is introduced in this approach. Later, the integration of multi-hop communication is done
within WSN with the help of two operating techniques such as leveling and generic multi-hop routing.
Rathee et al. [33] was proposed the QoS-aware and energy-balancing secure routing (QEBSR) method using the ACO for
providing an additional integrated overview of WSNs which was the development of the enhanced heuristics to determine
the transmission of end-to-end delay along with the nodes’ trust factor based on the routing path.
Singh et al. proposed a multi-objective clustering scheme [34] to achieve the optimized consumption of energy, lifespan
of a network, network throughput in addition to optimizing the delay of the network. The formulation of a fitness function
is made for the heterogeneous and homogeneous WSNs. An optimal CH is selected by using the fitness function for
energy reduction in addition to the CH balancing. Depending upon the fitness function, the introduction of a novel hybrid
clustered routing protocol.
Robinson et al. proposed a novel power-aware routing technique [35] on behalf of WSNs dependent on the threshold
rate and fuzzy logic with a view to enhance the effectiveness of energy. The selection of CHs is made on the basis of
the probability values of each node within WSN, and these are computed out of the residual energy of a single node. The
overall network’s mean energy at the present stage is calculated by using the cumulative residual node energy. For sending
the collected data out of the CH towards sink, the fuzzy control is utilized based on multi-hop communication. The three
factors considered by fuzzy control are the node’s queue length, the distance between nodes and BS, and residual energy
of sensor nodes.
The virtual points of WSNs and static clusters with dynamic structures are used in the energy-efficient routing protocol
based on static clustering and dynamic structure (ERP-SCDS) [36]. In this method, a relay node selection uses rather than
the complicated multi-hop route discovery algorithm. The energy dissemination and data aggregation issue is resolved
using an energy-aware data aggregation scheme (EADA) [37] is used for grid-based WSNs based on a mobile sink. The
network throughput and lifetime are enhanced using a simple clustering and a theoretical model, known as location-
based unequal clustering algorithm (LUCA) [38]. Different cluster sizes are included for each cluster based on its location
information, i.e. distance between CH and SINK. With this increased distance from SINK, a larger cluster size includes for
a cluster to reduce the overall network energy consumption in LUCA. In [39], the data collection-based frameworks are
discussed to improve network throughput. To select the CH, two parameters are considered, such as distance between
node and its velocity. Here, the available time slot and residual energy are not demonstrated. In [40], an Integer Linear
Programming model recommends that considers the parameters as node’s residual energy and CH’s average energy.
In [41], the approach is suggested for limiting the control messages and the next hop selection is performed based on
data transmission, route planning, and sink discovery. In [42], author discussed about intra-cluster mobile agent-based
combination of optimization algorithms for energy efficiency and optimality of SINK selection in WSNs. In [43], author
discussed about fuzzy optimal CH selection algorithm for improve the lifetime of the network in WSNs.

Assumptions. In the network model, below-mentioned features are considered, such as:

• The static sensor nodes are deployed randomly over the network field.
• The sensor nodes are homogeneous in nature which means the bandwidth and energy level are similar in every
node.
• The sensor nodes’ transmission power is directly proportional to the distance to reach the destination nodes.
• The Aggregator nodes (AG) used in the proposed method have high residual energy and high computing power
compared with the traditional sensor nodes.

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Table 1
Notations used in the proposed algorithm.
D(N −BS) Node’s Euclidean distance from BS
DAVG(N −BS) Average distance between BS and node N
Einit Initial energy
Econsumed Consumed energy
d(i, j) Distance between nodes ‘‘i’’ & ‘‘j’’
ω1 , ω2 , ω3 Weight coefficient, (0 < ω < 1)
Disti,sink Distance between node and BS
Centi Centrality of node ‘‘i’’
(Xi, Yi) X and Y positions of nodes i
CHwght CH weight
Xi,d Particle position
Vi,d Particle velocity
pbest Particle best
Gbest Global best of the particle
RE Node residual energy
LD Link delay
NL Node lifetime
ET Total energy
NPL Total number of packets received
ACE Average Energy consumption ratio
EP Node energy in previous round
EC Node energy in current round

3. Proposed technique

Due to the limitations exist in WSNs, various problems emerge while providing fault tolerance-based routing.
Constrained battery capability, undefined locations, &random scattering of nodes are considered as major issues in
designing the routing protocol. In this paper, fault tolerance is provided in the relay selection and an efficient data
aggregation method is presented for clustered WSNs. The proposed method utilizes backup mechanism & the Particle
Swarm Optimization (PSO) to achieve the proposed goal. The parameters like residual energy, link delay, and distance from
sink have been taken into account when selecting the CHs for each cluster. The Backup CHs are selected by estimating
the centrality among the nodes. As a part of intra-cluster communication, the deployment of Aggregator (AG) nodes is
performed for each cluster. These AG nodes can reduce the aggregation overhead in CHs. They like a bridge between the
member nodes and CHs. These AG nodes aggregates the data that received from member nodes and deliver them to the
CHs. The fitness function modified PSO is used to identify the best relays during routing phase. Table 1 represent the
notations used on proposed system.

3.1. Clustering & CH selection

Dividing the network nodes as ‘n’ number of clusters and assigning a CH for every cluster is the main objective of this
phase. Distance to BS, residual energy, and link delay are the parameters considered in selecting a CH. Therefore, the CH
is chosen when a single node fulfills the selection parameters. The selection parameters are described as follows:
Energy model
The energy is served by the receiver based on the radio electronics in the energy model we used. Also, while using the
model of multi-path fading, the transmitter distributes the energy is for radio electronics and power amplifiers. The energy
consumption is considered as the distance square ‘d2 ’ in the free space model when the distance ‘d’ between receiver and
sender is higher compared to the threshold. In multi-path fading model, the energy dissipation is ‘d4 ’. However, the energy
consumption Es is determined for transmission of a k-bit data packets as follows:
( )
k ∗ Eec + Efrs ∗ d2 ; d ≤ d0
{
Es = ( ) (1)
k ∗ Eec + Empf ∗ d4 ; d ≥ d0

where, Eec refers to the amount of energy required by electronic circuit. The Empf * d4 or Efrs *d2 , are amplifier energy of
free space or multipath fading model. Efrs and Empf refer to the requisite energy for data bits sending into free space using
a multipath fading channel. Below Eq. (2) estimates the threshold distance dthreh :
√
Efrs
dthreh = (2)
Empf
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P. Sreedevi and Dr S. Venkateswarlu Pervasive and Mobile Computing 85 (2022) 101642

To receive the k data packets, the energy is consumed and it is given by Eq. (3):

Erec = k ∗ Eec (3)

The below Eq. (4) represents the spent energy at CH for data aggregation:

Eagg = lEagg ∗ k ∗ n (4)

where, lEagg indicates the energy amount for one (l) bit data aggregation, k is the number of bits in a data packet, and n
is the number of messages.
Node distance to BS: - The distance among the nodes determines the amount energy required for the communication.
Less distance consumes less energy and vice versa if the node is selected as CH. The node distance parameter leads to the
minimization of average distance between cluster head nodes and BS. It can be denoted as Eq. (5),
N ( )
∑ D(N −BS)
f 1 = DN2BS = (5)
DAVG(N −BS)
i=1

D(N −BS) is indicated the node’s Euclidean distance from BS while DAVG(N −BS) refers to the average distance between BS and
node.
Residual energy: Energy is the vital source of sensor nodes to take part in the network activities. More energy is consumed
by the cluster heads compared to the cluster members during the aggregation, processing, and routing of data. The below
expression (6) is used to determine the residual energy:

f2 = Eres = Einit − Econsumed (6)

where, Einit & Econsumed are the initial energy & consumed energy of the sensor nodes respectively.
Link delay: The link delay is calculated by measuring the total end-to-end delay between communication nodes. The link
delay involves the queuing delay, transmission delay, processing delay, and propagation delay. It is expressed as Eq. (7)
∑ (( d(i, j)
) ( ))
1 1
f 3 = LD = + + (7)
c1 − c2 bw s
i ,j

where, 1 represents the number of bits in a packet, s is the propagation speed, c1-c2 are constant, bw refers to the
bandwidth link, and d(i, j) refers to the distance between intermediate nodes.
The objective for selecting the CH is:

f1 = min {distance (N , CH )}
f2 = max {Eres (N )}
f3 = min{LD(N)}

A weighted sum approach is used to combine all these estimated values to make a single entity for easy comparison.

CHwght = ω1 ∗ f 1 + ω2 ∗ f 2 + ω3 + f 3

where ω1 , ω2 , ω3 is the weight coefficient for the fitness functions ranging between 0 and 1. (0 < ω < 1)
Based on an advertisement packet, the probability value estimations are sending to the neighbor nodes by sensor nodes.
The nodes compare their own estimations with their neighbors. A node that satisfies the criteria of lower CH weight value
chooses as a CH.

3.2. Fault tolerance using BKCH

Based on the constraints of probability value between 0 and 1 and centroid of nodes, the selection of BKCH nodes is
performed. The nodes (other than the previously selected CH nodes) which satisfy these conditions are selected as BKCH.
The center relevant to each cluster is determined in this stage. The distance from centroid is considered to choose
the backup cluster head. The total number of nodes assumed as x that divides into n clusters {c1 , c2 , . . . .cn } such that
c1 ∪ c2 ∪ . . . ..ck = {x1 , x2 , . . . .xk } and ci ∩ cj = Ω . In Eq. (8), the center of cluster groups or mean is assumed by cn .
1 ∑
cn = xi (8)
N
xi ∈ck

The minimization of total Euclidean distance between backup cluster head and cluster members is the objective
function of determining the centroid. The minimum distance formulae algorithm is used in this process that helps to
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P. Sreedevi and Dr S. Venkateswarlu Pervasive and Mobile Computing 85 (2022) 101642

Fig. 2. Beacon format.

minimize the summation of distances to the cluster centroid from each sensor node. It moves between clusters until the
sum cannot be reduced further. Thus, it results the compact and well-separated set of clusters.
n
∑ ∑
I {c1 , c2 , . . . .cn } = D(xi − ck ) (9)
k=1 xi ∈ck

where, D(xi − ck ) is the Euclidean distance between xi andck . With this above Eq. (9), the sensor node, which has the least
distance from centroid will be assigned as the backup cluster head for each cluster.
Below Eq. (10) is used to determine the nodes’ centroid.
√
Disti,sink + (Xi − Xj )2 + (Yi − Yj )2
Centi = (10)
N
Here Disti,sink denotes the node ith distance between node and BS, N is the total number of nodes’ value in a network,
and (Xi, Yi) and (Xj, Yj) indicate the X and Y positions of nodes i and j.
For BKCH selection, the nodes start estimating the centroid values in the next round. The nodes share these estimations
with their non-CH neighbors and compare the estimations. The nodes which satisfy the criteria of centrality is selected as
BKCH. The result of the CH selection & the BKCH selection will be updated to the sensor nodes using the beacon messages.
The following Fig. 2 represents the beacon format for eligible CH and BKCH selection.

3.3. Routing phase

After selecting the CHs and BKCHs, the next stage is routing. The sensor nodes must deliver the sensed data to BS in
anyways. Usually, in clustered environments, the CHs aggregate the data that received from member nodes that will be
forwarded to the BS. The traffic within the network, as well as the congestion, is reduced by this approach drastically.
In traditional clustered environments, the sharing of collected data is done to the CH nodes using the member nodes for
further aggregation. Then the CH nodes directly establishes the connection to the BS and deliver the aggregated data. In a
clustered wireless network, multiple nodes are connected with the CH concurrently, thus overhead of the CH is increased.
To avoid that, we introduce AGGREGATOR nodes (AG), which aggregate the data from the member nodes and gives to CH.
By this, the overhead in CH is avoided. The AG nodes may present anywhere in the cluster but for efficient connectivity
from all the nodes it is deployed at the center of the cluster. The AG nodes are not a part of the sensing nodes.
PSO relay selection
Particle swarm optimization (PSO)
The swarm of a predefined size of particles (say Np) is included in the PSO. For an issue of multidimensional
optimization, each particle provides a complete solution. The equal dimension D is having for all particles. The velocity Vi,d
and the position Xi,d of the particle Pi , 1 ≤ Np are included in the hyperspace with dth dimension. The below-mentioned
notation is used for representing the ith particle of population Pi

Pi = [Xi,1 , Xi,2 , Xi,3 . . . ..Xi,D ]

To determine the quality of solution for the problem, the fitness function is used to evaluate each particle. The best
solutions, like global best Gbest and personal best Pbest i have been followed by the particle Pi to achieve the global best
position. Its position and velocity are updated based on below Eqs. (11) and (12) in the dth dimension of each iteration,
respectively.

Vi,d (t ) = w ∗ Vi,d (t + 1) + C1 ∗ R1 ∗ Xpbest i,d − Xi,d (t − 1) + C2 ∗ R2 ∗ XGbest i,d

( ) (

−Xi,d (t − 1)
)
(11)
Xi,d (t ) = Xi,d (t − 1) + Vi,d (t ) (12)

where, w refers to the inertial weight, C1 and C2 indicate the two non-negative constants, called as acceleration factors,
and R1 and R2 are two different random uniform distributed numbers within [0,1]. The update is repeated iteratively
until achieving the fixed number of iterations or an acceptable Gbest is reached.
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Relay selection using PSO

Since our aim is fault tolerant energy efficient routing, the PSO’s fitness function is modified to choose the nodes based
upon the fitness function in addition to residual energy.
Node Residual energy: - It is considered as one of most the important parameters to select the node as relay during every
round. The node which is having maximum energy is more preferred to be chosen as relay node in the heterogeneous
network. The ratio between residual energy and total energy is considered in this work. It can be defined as follows
Eq. (13):

RE = 1/ ER
∑n
i=1 ET (13)

where, ET and ER represent the total energy and node energy respectively. The chances of selecting the node as relay node
would be lesser when the value of RE is lower for a node.
Node lifetime: - The node lifetime estimation gives the lifetime of the node and it is considered for fitness calculation
as in Eq. (14).
Eres
NL = (14)
Econ

Here, in EEres , Eres is the nodes’ residual energy and Econ refers to the nodes’ consumed energy level. According to the
con
received number of packets and the consumed energy during the reception of data, Econ is determined. It can be expressed
as follows in Eq. (15)

Econ = NPL ∗ Er + ET (15)

Here, NPL represents the received total number of data packets at the data length L, ET indicates the consumed energy
due to the data transmission to the next hop nodes, and Er is the sensor nodes’ energy consumption because of the data
reception.
Average Energy consumption ratio: - It is the most important parameter used to decide the node’s energy consumption
rate. After first round of communication, the difference of initial energy and the remaining energy is considered as average
energy consumption rate. In the upcoming rounds, the existing energy of the node in the last round becomes its initial
energy for the current round. Therefore, if this parameter is lower in the current round, then the node becomes eligible
for selection otherwise, it does not qualify. It can be defined as Eq. (16).
(EP − EC )
ACE = (16)
EP
EP & EC are node energy in previous round and current round.
Finally, the final fitness function is evaluated by the above-mentioned parameters and it is converted as a single
expression as per the given in below Eq. (17):

fitness (f ) = pbest i = ϕ 1RE + ϕ 2NL + ϕ 3AEC (17)

3
∑
Where, ϕi = 1, ϕi ∈ (0, 1)
i=1

Gbest i = max [pbest i ]

The node that has the highest value will be chosen as the relay node. The data communication is initiated after determining
all relay nodes. The data is sent to the AG by every non-CH node through the relay nodes selected based fitness evaluation.
Once all data packets that received from associated nodes are collected, this data are summarized by each CH node and
deliver the data to the BS directly. Fault tolerance: If the CH of a cluster is failed during the steady phase, then the
member nodes select BKCH toward the BS to continue its operation. The failure can be detected by a sensor node if it
does not reach the CH during data transmission. After that the member node joins a BKCH the data transmission resumes
until the end of the transmission.

3.4. Algorithm setup for FTOR-modPSO

The algorithm for relay selection and fault-tolerant CH selection techniques is described in this section. Based on PSO
fitness function, the relay selection, backup CH selection, and CH selection are performed. In the initial part of an algorithm,
the CH selection and cluster partitioning procedures are mentioned. In the relay selection, the global best and particle
best variables like Gbest and Pbest are involved.
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Table 2
Simulation parameters.
Parameter Value
Application traffic CBR
Transmission rate 1024 bytes/ 0.5 ms
Radio range 250 m
Packet length 1024 bytes
Routing protocol AODV
Simulation time 100 s
Number of sensor nodes 50
Area length 1000 × 500
Transmission protocol UDP
Initial energy 100 J
BKPCH 4
Clusters 4

Table 3
End to End delay values.
Time\Methods EM-LEACH QEBSR QOS-IHC MLSEEP FTOR-mod PSO(Proposed)
20 0.139 0.086 0.081 0.070 0.056
40 0.156 0.108 0.099 0.081 0.068
60 0.193 0.178 0.156 0.103 0.084
80 0.239 0.210 0.196 0.148 0.112
100 0.288 0.259 0.223 0.189 0.153

4. Results and discussion

The fault tolerance is provided by the proposed mechanism that solely depends on a modified PSO algorithm and
BKPCHs and an optimal CH. At every cluster, the data from member nodes is aggregated by AG nodes that will be
delivered to the respective CHs that leads to the reduced communication overhead and congestion in CHs. In this section,
the proposed technique FTOR-ModPSO evaluation and validation of efficiency are performed by comparing with the
earlier methods, such as EM-LEACH [32], QEBSR [33], QOS-IHC [34], and ML-SEEP [35]. The methods are simulated using
NETWORK SIMULATOR-2 and the same pattern of network is followed for all the methods including proposed for fair
evaluation. In the simulation results, various performance metrics, like end-to-end delay, energy consumption, overhead,
throughput, and packet delivery ratio are analyzed.

4.1. Simulation environment

A network area of 1000 m× 500 m is considered to perform the simulation in which the deployment of the sensors is
deployed at random locations. At the central part of the network area, the deployment of BS node is performed. Table 2
demonstrates the network parameters. Tables 3–7 is showed the values of different performance parameters for proposed
and existing methods.

4.2. Graphical analysis

The data should be aggregated and delivered to the targeted receivers on time for further escalation. In the existing
protocols, the absence of the fault tolerance and improper forwarder node selection leads to retransmissions often, which
results in a high delay between the sensor nodes. The proposed protocol avoids unnecessary factors such as maximum
hops to reach to the destination and high data traffic which affects the data delivery between the nodes. The result shows
that the proposed protocol has a lesser delay than previously proposed protocols in the given time. Fig. 3 depicts the
overall network’s end-to-end delay.
Energy is vital for the sensor nodes for continuous operation. Sensor networks are limited energy networks. The
optimized usage of energy gives a longer lifetime. There are no proper fault tolerant data aggregation techniques presented
in the existing protocols that reduce the communication overhead, which increases the overall energy consumption
ratio. Our proposed method’s fault tolerance mechanism alleviates factors such as retransmission and wrong path and
improves overall energy consumption using effective data aggregation techniques. The result proves that the energy
consumption rate is comparatively lesser than the conventional protocols. Fig. 4 shows the graphical representation of
energy consumption.
The division of clusters and the fair selection of CHs using multiple relevant parameters make CHs easily accessible
by the member nodes. In the existing works, the unexpected congestion due to the sensor nodes’ burst traffic is not
addressed effectively. So, the throughput ratio is affected drastically in the existing methods. Aggregator nodes and relay
selection using PSO ensure seamless data delivery across the network, helping the proper data delivery without much
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Table 4
Energy consumption values.
Time\Methods EM-LEACH QEBSR QOS-IHC MLSEEP FTOR-mod PSO(Proposed)
20 7.48 6.64 6.02 5.68 4.93
40 7.96 7.12 6.89 5.96 5.29
60 10.55 9.76 9.08 8.39 7.86
80 14.23 11.23 10.69 9.88 8.68
100 16.89 13.58 12.81 10.76 9.67

Fig. 3. Analysis of delay.

Fig. 4. Energy consumption.

Fig. 5. Network throughput.

interruption. The result proves that the proposed approach delivers the data more reliable than the previously proposed
protocols. Fig. 5 represents the network performance.
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Table 5
Throughput values of the proposed & compared methods.
Time\Methods EM-LEACH QEBSR QOS-IHC MLSEEP FTOR-mod PSO(Proposed)
20 123.56 135.02 148 160 183
40 134.18 143.08 157 169 197
60 148.98 156.27 166 174 209
80 155.23 161.29 173 184 222
100 177.26 182.01 195 206 246

Fig. 6. Routing overhead.

Table 6
Overhead values evaluated from simulation results.
Time\Methods EM-LEACH QEBSR QOS-IHC MLSEEP FTOR-mod PSO(Proposed)
20 1.69 1.55 1.32 1.03 0.94
40 2.17 1.96 1.69 1.28 1.05
60 3.05 2.93 1.99 1.46 1.11
80 4.18 3.91 2.89 2.51 1.89
100 5.11 4.90 4.55 3.79 2.34

Table 7
Packet delivery rate evaluation values.
Time\Methods EM-LEACH QEBSR QOS-IHC MLSEEP FTOR-mod PSO(Proposed)
20 0.5073 0.6512 0.6874 0.7215 0.8096
40 0.6847 0.7510 0.7825 0.7994 0.8517
60 0.6978 0.7648 0.7987 0.8059 0.8589
80 0.6845 0.7699 0.7998 0.8096 0.8874
100 0.7269 0.7811 0.8015 0.8129 0.9025

The amount of control packets required for the network operation decides the network’s overhead, representing in
Fig. 6. In the previously proposed works, the number of retransmissions due to link breakage and improper relay node
selection is quite high. Also, the available methods to handle route failure require additional control packets, increasing
the network’s overhead. Frequent retransmission due to the network failure requires additional usage of control packets,
which affects the overhead. In our proposed protocol, the fault tolerance mechanism ensures break-free communication.
Also, it provides a backup mechanism for uninterrupted transmission, which reduces the need for additional control
packets and reduces the overhead.
Selecting an uninterrupted and shortest routing decision improves the data delivery ratio, and it shows in Fig. 7. In the
existing works, the data delivery rate is seriously affected by CH failure and link failure. There are no proper fault tolerance
mechanisms available that handle the failure and avoid the retransmissions. In our proposed approach, the data packets
are transmitted through the globally best paths identified by the PSO algorithm. The result proves that the proposed
approach provides more PDR results than traditional protocols. The comparison of proposed with existing methods via
different parameters shows in Table 8.
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Fig. 7. Packet delivery ratio.

Table 8
Comparison of the existing and proposed methods for 50 nodes.
Parameters EM-LEACH QEBSR QOS-IHC MLSEEP FTOR-mod PSO(Proposed)
Average delay 0.288 0.259 0.223 0.189 0.153
Dissipated energy 16.89 13.58 12.81 10.76 9.67
Throughput 177 182 195 206 246
Routing overhead 5.11 4.9 4.55 3.79 2.34
Packet delivery ratio 72.69 78.11 80.15 81.29 90.25

5. Conclusion

It is quite complicated to provide fault tolerance for WSNs as the energy resources of sensor nodes is restricted. Fault
tolerance clustering and efficient relay selection for data transmission are the major phases of this proposed work. The
proposed method utilizes backup mechanism & the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to achieve fault tolerance. The CHs
for every cluster are chosen according to the parameters, such as distance from sink, residual energy, and link delay. Node
centrality is considered for backup CHs. These Backup CHs act immediately and start data aggregation in case of actual
CH failure. The Aggregator (AG) nodes are deployed in every cluster to reduce the data aggregation overhead in CHs.
For efficient relay selection during data transmission, the modified PSO is used. It takes residual energy, node lifetime
& average consumption of energy for relay selection. The proposed mechanism is compared with existing techniques
such as EM-LEACH [32], QEBSR [33], QOS-IHC [34], and ML-SEEP [35]. The simulation results proved that the proposed
mechanism reduces overhead by 55% and improve the energy consumption & throughput by 40% & 60% respectively.
Based on multiple simultaneous communication from cluster members, CH nodes and AG nodes are prone to traffic
suddenly. The future works can be focused on improving of energy-efficiency and congestion in the AG and CH nodes
with different methods like learning algorithms.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have
appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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