Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Neurocomputing
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/neucom

A rule-driven multi-path routing algorithm with dynamic immune

clustering for event-driven wireless sensor networks$
Yongsheng Ding n, Rui Chen, Kuangrong Hao
Engineering Research Center of Digitized Textile & Apparel Technology, College of Information Science and Technology, Donghua University, Shanghai 201620,
PR China

art ic l e i nf o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to save energy for event-driven wireless sensor networks (WSNs) applied to emergency mon-
Received 5 September 2015 itoring, a rule-driven multi-path routing algorithm with dynamic immune clustering (RDICMR) is pro-
Received in revised form posed. The RDICMR algorithm is executed under the driven of condition rules and implementation rules.
12 January 2016
By applying the working mechanism of the biological immune system to the event-driven dynamic
Accepted 21 March 2016
clustering algorithm for WSNs, where event as antigen, the records of clusters and routing paths of past
Communicated by Dr. K. Li
Available online 7 May 2016 events in the node's memory as antibodies, antibodies have the function of collecting and preserving
memories, as such it is convenient to response to antigens that are similar to the previous antigen timely.
Keywords: When similar events happen and satisfy the affinity and energy rules, the sensor nodes can directly call
Wireless sensor network
antibodies in the memory to build clusters of events and transfer data quickly. Besides, we change the
Multi-path routing
cycle of the network dynamically according to the updating cluster cycle rule. The proposed RDICMR
Event-driven
Rule-driven algorithm saves a lot of energy in the process of building clusters and data transmission, increases the
Dynamic immune clustering amount of data transmission and prolongs the lifetime of the network.
& 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction swarm optimization [5], in which the improvement of the net-

Among many important applications of wireless sensor net-
works (WSNs) [1], like fire, earthquake, the mutation of agri-
cultural production environment, the energy of sensor node is
limited and often not replenished timely [2]. Therefore, how to
prolong the life of the network in the emergency monitoring
becomes an important hot-spot in the research of the WSNs.
Routing protocol is used for transmitting data packet from source
nodes to destination nodes, its design has important influence on
the effect of data fusion and the energy consumption of sensor
nodes. Also the solutions of the fault-tolerant routing problem are
very important to the robustness of the WSN [3]. Hu et al. solved
the problem using the endocrine cooperative particle swarm
optimization [4] and the immune orthogonal learning particle
☆
This work was supported in part by the Key Project of the National Nature
Science Foundation of China (No. 61134009), the National Nature Science Foun-
dation of China (No. 61473077, 61473078), Cooperative research funds of the
National Natural Science Funds Overseas and Hong Kong and Macao scholars (No.
61428302), Program for Changjiang Scholars from the Ministry of Education, Spe-
cialized Research Fund for Shanghai Leading Talents, Project of the Shanghai
Committee of Science and Technology (Nos. 13JC1407500), Innovation Program of
Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (No. 14ZZ067) , and the Fundamental
Research Funds for the Central Universities (15D110423).
n
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ysding@dhu.edu.cn (Y. Ding).
work's robustness was remarkable.
According to the topological structure of the WSNs, routing
protocols are divided into the planar routing protocol and the
clustering routing protocol. In the planar routing protocol [6], the
status of each node in the network is completely equal. Therefore,
the network with planar structure routing protocol does not
require any structural maintenance work. Also this structure is
relatively simple to implement. Besides, the equality of each node
makes a good robustness of the network. However, there are also
some problems. Since there is no management node in the net-
work, communication resources cannot be optimized, so that it is
not easy to achieve data fusion. Typical planar routing protocols
include: Directed diffusion protocol [7], Rumor routing protocol
[8], SPIN [9], Flood routing [10] and so on. The clustering routing
protocol [11,12] can generate good network topological structure
automatically, and improve the efficiency of the routing protocol
and MAC protocol. The generated topological structure can lay the
foundation for data fusion, time synchronization and so on.
Meanwhile, it can save energy consumption of sensor nodes and
prolong the lifetime of the network. The clustering routing pro-
tocol is more suitable for large networks. Typical clustering routing
protocols include LEACH [13], TEEN [14], PEGASIS [15], ACE [16],
HEED [17] and so on [18–20]. To solve the problem how to decide
the optimal cluster number and how to choose cluster heads
reasonable, TEEN-PE [21] was put forward by considering the basic

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neucom.2016.03.052
0925-2312/& 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
140 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149
characteristics of the emergency monitoring system. According to
the way of collecting and sending data in WSNs, WSNs can be
divided into two categories [22]: time-driven WSNs [23,24] and
event-driven WSNs [25–27].
In the typical clustering routing protocols of event-driven
WSNs, despite the factors such as the energy of the nodes, the
distance between the nodes are taken into consideration, but the
events' features are not taken into consideration. In [28], some
basic characteristics of events are considered, such as the severity
of the event, location of the event, and a dynamic clustering
routing algorithm (DCRR) was put forward. But in the DCRR
algorithm, the clusters are set up in advance, there may be some
difference between the built clusters and the actual situation. Ou
[29] put forward a dynamic clustering routing algorithm (DCRA).
In the algorithm, the clusters are built dynamically after the event
occurs according to the characteristics of the event. But the nodes
will spend a lot of energy to build clusters when similar events
happen again.
The main energy consumption of the WSNs is during data
transmission. If every time when a similar event occurs, clusters
and routing paths are rebuilt and a large amount of similar data is
transmitted, as such a lot of energy would be wasted. Comparing
the routing process of the event-driven routing algorithm in the
WSNs and the virus invasion process in the biological immune
system, we are inspired that we can solve the above issue
according to the biological immune system. Hence we introduce
the biological immune mechanism into the algorithm design to
realize the energy-saving, quick clustering and routing of the
similar events. We propose a rule-driven multi-path routing
algorithm with dynamic immune clustering (RDICMR) for event-
driven WSNs.
In the RDICMR, for a similar event, under rule-driven, we reuse
the cluster structures and routing paths built before and reduce
the data transmission according to the implementation rules to
reduce the energy consumption.
The main contributions of this paper are as follows: 1) we
develop a dynamic immune clustering method based on the bio-
logical immune mechanism to the event-driven WSNs to reduce
the energy consumption when a similar event happens. 2) We
propose the RDICMR where condition rules and implementation
rules are used to reduce the energy consumption for event-
driven WSNs.
The rest of this paper is arranged as follows. In Section 2, we
introduce the model of the event-driven WSNs and its energy
consumption theory. In Section 3, we propose the main innovation
points by combining rule-driven and the biological immune
mechanism with the routing algorithm, and show the detailed
working processes of the RDICMR algorithm. In Section 4, simu-
lation experiments are done to show the effectiveness of the
proposed algorithm. In Section 5, we conclude the whole paper
and provide the further study in the future.
2. Event-driven wireless sensor network model and energy
consumption theory
2.1. Network model
In this paper, the network is used to monitor emergency and
transform the monitored data of the emergency. All sensor nodes
are assumed to be distributed randomly in zone A, and the sensor
network has the following features:
1) The network contains numerous sensor nodes, and only one
base station (BS). In the network, the sensor nodes are
deployed at the detection site. Generally speaking, the nodes
cannot move after being deployed, and the number of sensor
nodes is decided according to the size of the application sys-
tem. The BS is deployed in a fixed position outside the
detection area.
2) The energies of the sensor nodes are set to be equal and un-
replenishable when the sensor nodes are deployed. The mutual
communications can be carried out between a node and the BS.
Besides, the wireless transmitting power is limited and adjus-
table. The wireless transmitting power of the BS is very large.
3) A sensor node sends data to the BS only when an unexpected
event happens. While it is not required to periodically send
sample data to the BS, the unexpected event is required to be
discovered and responded in the first place.
4) The wireless transceiver module will be in dormancy state for a
long time. Only when potential risks occur, sensor nodes will
be woken up. In the meantime, they transmit the data to
the BS.
5) The node zone can be divided into several sub-zones. Each
sensor node obtains a zone number according to the deployed
location of itself.
6) The sensors adopt the time synchronization.
In above features, the first two items have universalities in all
WSNs. While the last few items are more suitable to the char-
acteristics of the event-driven networks, and the fifth item is
especially obvious, because it is necessary for the node to obtain
its location information, hence the data it collects is meaningful.
2.2. Energy consumption theory of wireless communication
The energy consumption sending k bits data from one node to
another one, where the distance been them is d, is defined as:
ETx ðk; dÞ ¼ ETx  elec k þ εd k
n
ð1Þ
The energy consumption receiving k bits data is:
ERx ðkÞ ¼ ERx  elec k ð2Þ
In general,
ETx  elec ¼ ERx  elec ¼ Eelec ð3Þ
In which Eelec means energy consumption of 1 bit data doing
code modulation. εd means the amplifier energy consumption to
n
send 1 bit data, which are determined by the communication
distance and error rate. ε is the propagation loss index. The value
of n relates to the transmission environment, which is always in
the range of 2–4. Hence the single hop communication distance
should be reduced, and the multi-hop with short distance com-
munication method is a better choice.
3. A rule-driven multi-path routing algorithm with dynamic
immune clustering
3.1. Mappings between the biological immune system and the event-
driven WSNs
Biological immune system is an adaptive information proces-
sing system with the characteristics of learning and memory. It
consists of immune organs, immune tissues and lymph cells. It can
identify the non-self-antigens effectively through the above
organizations, then produces antibodies to destroy the invading
antigen to protect the body from invasion and keep the balance of
the body environment. Biological immune system includes inher-
ent immune system and adaptive immune system generally. The
adaptive immune system is a defense system evolved from the
environment. Adaptive immune system has learning and memory
 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149 141

function, after the first invasion of the virus, the system produces Begin
the immune response for the first time, then the antibodies Update record, record
System events
remember the characteristics of the virus. When such or similar
initialization
virus invades again, the system will produce “secondary” response,
learn the structure and characteristics of the virus and destroy the Dormancy

virus in a very short time [30].

The event-driven WSNs have the issue of unbalanced energy N
Event happen˛
consumption and the energy waste problem caused by re-
Y
clustering and rebuilding the routing path when the similar
events occur. Comparing the routing process of the event-driven Meet the trig- N
ger rule?
routing algorithm in WSNs and the powerful information treat-
ment and the defense mechanism of the biological immune sys- Y
Execute establishing
tem, we can solve the above issue of the event-driven WSNs cluster rule
inspired by biological immune system. So we introduce the bio- Reach
logical immune mechanism into the algorithm design to realize Execute data
the evaluation
transmission
the energy-saving, quick clustering and routing of the similar index of network
rule
death
events. Taking an event as an antigen, sensor nodes as antibodies,
the antibodies have the memory-saving functions to the antigens, Y
The life-
which make the similar antigens respond to the events in time time of clusters
N
when they occur again. When similar events occur again and the end?
sensor nodes satisfy the affinity and energy rules, the memories in Y
the antibodies can be directly invoked. It will carry out quick
End
clustering responses to the events, and establish the routing path
quickly, which saves a great number of energies consumed during Fig. 1. Overall process of the RDICMR.
the clustering and path establishment processes, and prolongs the
lifetime of the network. Meanwhile, we change the cycle of the
Begin
network dynamically according to the updating cluster cycle rule
which can also prolong the lifetime of the network in some extent.
The mapping relations of the event-driven WSNs and biological Meet the N
immune system are as shown in Table 1. Dormancy
trigger rule?

Y
3.2. RDICMR algorithm
Meet the Y Excited nodes Y
To solve the energy waste problem in the routing process of the affinity rule? meet the energy rule?
event-driven WSNs, we propose the RDICMR algorithm based on
N
the DCRA algorithm. In the DCRA algorithm, the clusters are built Execute the cluster N
dynamically after the event occurs according to the characteristics head selection rule
of the event. But the nodes will spend a lot of energy to build
clusters when similar events happen again. The RDICMR algorithm Execute the establishing Copy the cluster structure of the
solves the defect and reduces the energy consumption in the cluster rule event whose affinity is the higest
WSNs. The overall process of the RDICMR is as shown in Fig. 1,
where the biological immune mechanism is used to rebuild the End
clusters and routing paths. Routing under the driven of rules, we
Fig. 2. Sub-processes of building clusters.
choose the cluster heads and update the cluster cycle according to
the implementation rules.
2) We apply the biological immune system to the routing algo-
The amount of data transmitted is reduced according to the
rithm to reduce the energy consumption.
rules, so the energy consumption of the network is reduced. Based
on the DCRA, the following improvements are made:
The RDICMR algorithm mainly includes two stages: building
clusters and data transmission. The building clusters stage
1) In the process of the routing algorithm, we use condition rules
includes two sub-stages: judging whether meets the trigger rule
and implementation rules to drive the algorithm to reduce the
and building clusters, as shown in Fig. 2. The data transmission
energy consumption.
stage includes establishing routing paths, data transmission, and
Table 1
routing paths maintenance, as shown in Fig. 3. The rules men-
Mappings between the biological immune system and the event-driven WSNs. tioned in Figs. 2 and 3 are introduced in details in Section 3.3.

Biological immune Event-driven WSNs

system 3.3. Rule-driven

Antigen Event
Rule-driven has been applied in many aspects like Web service
Antibody The record of clusters and routing path of past event
in the node's memory composition, automation test framework research [31], geographic
Affinity The consistency of the area and intensity of the information management and business service composition [32]
event except routing algorithm. In this paper, rule-driven is applied to
B cells Sensor nodes
the event-driven dynamic clustering routing algorithm. It can
T cells Sensor nodes
improve the applicability of the algorithm because the process of
142 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149

the algorithm is known clearly by users and the specific rule
parameters are defined by users considering the real conditions.
Rules can be divided into two cases: condition rules and imple-
mentation rules. The specific rules and their execution conditions
are as shown in Table 2.
turn on transceivers and send data to their cluster head.
Meanwhile, the event saves the monitored data at this time as
SV. In this round, when these nodes select the cluster head and
transmit data next time, the follow conditions must be
satisfied:

3.3.1. Condition rules
Condition rules refer to the execution condition judgment in
the process of the routing algorithm, including the trigger rule,
affinity rule, and energy rule.
1) Trigger rule
In the algorithm we use two threshold values of TEEN protocol
[14], one is hard threshold ðH T Þ, and the other is soft threshold
ðST Þ. The two values are broadcasted to all nodes in the initi-
alization stage of the system. These nodes perceive the ambient
environment continuously through sensor. When the mon-
itored value D reaches the hard threshold for the first time, the
event sends signals within the scope of optimum clustering
radius ðRopt Þ in the surrounding. The nodes receiving the signals
will compete for being a cluster head. The cluster is built
through the cluster-head selection algorithm. Then the nodes
a) The absolute differential value between SV and currently
received data must be larger or equivalent to soft threshold;
b) the currently received data must be larger or equivalent to
hard threshold.
When the monitored data meet the two conditions at the
same time, the sensor nodes in the optimum clustering radius
go into the exciting state, and it satisfies the trigger rule.
2) Affinity rule
When the event satisfies the trigger rule, then we check the
affinity between the current event and history events via Eq.
(4), and find the biggest affinity via Eq. (5).
1 1
Affinity ¼ ð4Þ
1 þ ΔD 1 þ S
Affinity_ max ¼ maxðAffinityÞ ð5Þ

Begin
Affinity represents the evaluation index of affinity, the range is
[0,1].
The bigger the value is, the bigger the affinity is.
Meet
the affinity
Excited nodes meet Y ΔD ¼
D  D j, D represents the monitored data, D* represents
Y the energy rule? the historical monitored data, S represents the Euclidean
rule?
distance between the events, Affinity_ max represents the
N
N biggest affinity.
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
S ¼ ðX e_new  X e_old Þ2 þ ðY e_new  Y e_old Þ2
2
Execute the updating cluster cycle ð6Þ
rule, transmit data using the
routing path whose affinity is the where
 ðX e_new
 ; Y e_new Þ is the coordinate of the current event,
highest X e_old ; Y e_old is the coordinate of the old event.
Execute the establishing If the affinity satisfies the evaluation standard, it satisfies the
routing path rule affinity rule, and the rule parameter can be defined by user
according to the real condition.
Execute the data
transmission rule
3) Energy rule
Execute the routing path The energy rule parameter Standard_Energy can also be
maintenance rule
defined by user according to the real condition. If all the
Fig. 3. Sub-processes of data transmission. exciting nodes meet the energy rule, it satisfies the energy rule.

Table 2
Specific rules and their execution conditions.

Rules Execution condition

Condition rules Trigger rule Data monitoring

Affinity rule After the event is triggered
Energy rule The event is triggered and satisfied the affinity rule

Implementation rules Cluster heads selection rule
Updating cluster cycle rule
Cluster parameters determination
rule
Establishing cluster rule
Establishing routing paths rule
Data transmission rule
Routing paths maintenance rule
The event is triggered but the affinity rule or the energy rule is not satisfied
The event is triggered, and the triggered event satisfies the two rules at the same time
The event is triggered but the affinity rule or the energy rule is not satisfied
The event is triggered but the affinity rule or the energy rule is not satisfied.
The cluster head selection rule has been executed
The event is triggered but the affinity rule or the energy rule is not satisfied.
The cluster head selection rule and the establishing cluster rule have been executed
The event is triggered but the affinity rule or the energy rule is not satisfied.
The cluster head selection rule, the establishing cluster rule and the establishing routing paths rule have
been executed
The event is triggered but the affinity rule or the energy rule is not satisfied.
The cluster head selection rule, the establishing cluster rule, the establishing routing paths rule and data
transmission rule have been executed
 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149
3.3.2. Implementation rules
Implementation rules refer to the steps how to do in the
routing process, including the cluster heads selection rule,
updating cluster cycle rule, cluster parameters determination rule,
establishing cluster rule, establishing routing paths rule, data
transmission rule, and routing paths maintenance rule.
1) Cluster heads selection rule
We improve the cluster heads election formula of LEACH [13],
as shown in Eq. (7):
( p E ðnÞ
w1 1  pðr mod 1=pÞ
þ w2 En_lef t
þ w3 ð1  LLBSmax Þ; n A G
TðnÞ ¼ n_init
0; others
where r represents the current election round number, p
represents the ratio between the number of cluster heads and
the total number of nodes in the network, G represents the set of
nodes that have never been the cluster head. w1 ; w2 ; w3 repre-
sents the importance of the three parameters respectively,
w1 þ w2 þ w3 ¼ 1; En_lef t represents the residual energy of the
node n; En_init represents the initial energy of the node n; LBS ðnÞ
represents the distance between the node n and the BS; Lmax
represents the longest distance between the BS and the nodes.
Then in the region where the event happens, the more energy
for a node that has never been selected as a cluster head
remains, the greater the probability of the node to be selected
as the cluster head is. Also the closer the node from the BS is, the
earlier the node can get the chance to be a cluster head.
2) Updating cluster cycle rule
We calculate the new cluster lifetime according to the affinity
via Eq. (8), then transmit data.
cczq_new ¼ ½cczq  ð1  Affinity_ maxÞ þ Basic_NUM
where cczq_new represents the new cluster lifetime, cczq
represents the original cluster lifetime, Affinity_ max repre-
sents the biggest affinity, Basic_NUM is a parameter that can be
adjusted by different events. It can be seen from Eq. (8) that,
the higher the affinity is, the shorter the new clustering period
is, the less the data that needs to be transmitted and thus the
more the energy can be saved.
3) Cluster parameters determination rule
We calculate the range of clusters (ccfw) by Eq. (9) and the
cycle of clusters (cczq) by Eq. (10). Then we inform all nodes
within the scope of ccfw to participate in the election of cluster
heads.
Ropt  D
ccf w ¼
HT
where Ropt represents the optimal radius of clusters, D repre-
sents the monitored data.
SD
cczq ¼
HT
where S represents the conventional lifetime of clusters which
can be set according to the actual situation to be constant
generally, D represents the monitored data.
From Eq. (9), we can see that under the condition that the hard
threshold and the optimal radius of clusters are not changed,
the bigger the intensity of the event is, the greater the optimal
radius of clusters will be. From Eq. (10), we can see that under
the condition that the conventional lifetime of clusters and the
hard threshold are not changed, the bigger the intensity of the
event is, the longer the lifetime of the cluster is.
In the TEEN algorithm, when no event happens it still elects
cluster heads, builds clusters and dissolves clusters, which
causes the energy waste problem. The proposed algorithm
solves the problem by using the advantages of the event-driven
143
WSNs. When no event happens, all the nodes are dormant, so
the energy consumption during the period is low. Besides, we
calculate ccfw and cczq according to the intensity of the event
to reduce the energy consumption of communication, and
improve the energy efficiency.
4) Establishing cluster rule
After the election of cluster heads, all the cluster heads will
keep their transceiver open and send messages to the sur-
rounding nodes. According to the received signal strength, all
the non-cluster-head nodes will decide to belong to which
cluster. After all these are done, through CSMA MAC [33]
protocol, the cluster head nodes will be informed that who is a
ð7Þ
member of this cluster.
5) Establishing routing paths rule
In the proposed algorithm, we use the improved energy multi-
path routing rule. Each node needs to know all next-hop nodes
to the destination node. Each node calculates the probability
that the other nodes are taken as the next-hop node to
transmit data according to the value of the communication
cost. Cos tðiÞ is the communication cost of node i to the
destination node. Because there are lots of paths from each
node to the destination node, so the value of the cost is the
weighted average of each path. The main rules of establishing
routing paths are as follows:
a) The destination node broadcasts the establishing routing
paths message to its neighbor nodes to start establishing
routing paths. The establishing routing paths message
includes the field of cost and jump number. The field of cost
represents the energy consumption of the path with the node
that sends the message, and the initial value is set to 0. The
field of jump number represents the jump number hi of the
ð8Þ path from the node that sends the message to the destination
node, the initial value is set to 0, and the total jump number
of the destination node is 0;
b) when a node receives the establishing routing paths message
from its neighbor nodes, it compares the distance to the
source node and the destination node, if it is closer to the
source node and more far to the destination node, the node
sends the message, otherwise it discards the message;
c) if the node decides to send the establishing routing paths
message, it is necessary to calculate the new value of the field
of cost and jump number. When the message is sent from
node i to node j, the communication cost of the path includes
the cost of node i and the communication cost between node
i and node j
ð9Þ C j;i ¼ Cos tðiÞ þ Metricði; jÞ ð11Þ
Among them, C j;i is the cost of the path from node j to the
destination node across the node i. Metricði; jÞ is the com-
munication cost from node j to node i
ð10Þ
β
Metricði; jÞ ¼ eαij Ri ð12Þ
Among them, eαij is the energy consumption of direct com-
β
munication between node i and node j. Ri is the residual
energy of node i. α; β are constant. This way considers the
energy consumption and residual energy of nodes at the
same time.
In addition, the jump number of node j is the jump number of
node i plus 1:
hj ¼ hi þ 1 ð13Þ
Among them, hj is the jump number of the path from node j
to the destination node across the node i.
144 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149

d) The node has to give up the paths whose cost is too big, the 6) Data transmission rule
condition that node j adds node i to its local routing table FTj Data transmission includes data transmission between nodes
is inside clusters and data transmission between cluster heads

 and the BS. For the nodes inside clusters, we still adopt single
FTj ¼ i
C j;i r αðminðC j;k ÞÞ ð14Þ
hop method for the data transmission with the cluster head
according to TEEN protocol. After the cluster head collects the
Among them, α is the system parameter that is more than 1. data sent by the nodes within the cluster, data fusion is
e) The node j calculates the next-hop selecting probability for implemented and then the processed data will be sent to the
each node in the routing table. It is inversely proportional to BS. The data transmission between cluster heads and the BS is
the energy consumption and the jump number. The node j much more complex. Generally speaking, most cluster heads
calculates the probability of selecting node i as the next-hop are far from the BS. In order to reduce energy consumption, we
node using the following formula adopt the multiple hop method to build transmission paths and
1=C j;i 1=h implement data transmission [34]. The processes are shown as
P j;i ¼ α P þβ P i follows:
1=C j;k 1=hk
k A FT j k A FT j the cluster head selects the next-hop cluster head according to
αþβ ¼ 1 ð15Þ the establishing routing paths rule, and sends the data to the
selected cluster head. At the same time, the cluster head
records the path in the memory of the event.
f) The node calculates the cost of itself to the destination node 7) Routing paths maintenance rule
Cos tðjÞ according to the each energy cost in the routing table The way of routing paths maintenance is doing the flood query
and the selecting probability of the next-hop node. It is the
from the destination node to the source node periodically.
average cost of nodes in routing table to the destination node
X
Cos tðjÞ ¼ P j;i C j;k ð16Þ 3.4. The whole process of the RDICMR algorithm
k A FT j

The whole process of the RDICMR algorithm is as shown in

Fig. 1. After the deploy of sensor nodes, we initialize the system.
The node j uses the new cost and jump number, Cos tðjÞ and hj , The BS will broadcast a data packet with the position of the BS to
and then broadcasts the establishing routing paths message to its the all other nodes, and at the same time, request the information
neighbor nodes. like area position, hard threshold ðH T Þ, soft threshold ðST Þ of the
The whole process of establishing routing path is as shown in other nodes. The nodes return HELLO message with above infor-
Fig. 4. mation to the BS.
At the same time, the sensor nodes can obtain their location
Begin
information, the distance between the BS and themselves and the
location of their neighbor nodes. After the system initialization is
Calculate the cost and jump completed, all nodes are dormant, only open the sensor to monitor
number, broadcast the
the environment data.
establishing routing path
message to the neighbor nodes After the event happens, we judge whether the event trig-
gered according to the trigger rule, if it does, then calculate cczq
and ccfw according to the cluster parameters determination rule.
Compare to the If the event is not triggered, all the nodes will be in a
node that send the broadcast N dormant state.
Discard the
message, closer to the source node
message Then, we judge whether the triggered event satisfies the affi-
and more far to the destination
node?
nity rule and the energy rule. If the event satisfies the two rules at
the same time, we copy the cluster structure and routing paths of
Y the event with the highest affinity in the memory of the immune
Send the message, calculate the system, update the cluster cycle, and transmit data. At the end of
new cost and jump number
the lifetime of clusters, we dissolute all clusters, and all nodes
Meet the
renew the original relationship. Then system updates, turns back
Give up the into initialization, loops until all the energy depletion of all the
condition that node j N paths whose nodes. If the event does not satisfy any of the affinity or energy
adds node I to its local cost is too big
routing table rule, we first execute the cluster head selection rule in ccfw, and
Y then execute the establishing cluster rule, establishing routing
Add the node to the local path rule, data transmission rule and routing path maintenance
routing table
rule. After that, we save the cluster structure and routing paths of
the event in the memory of immune system.
Calculate the next-hop selecting
probability for each node in the routing At the end of the lifetime of clusters, we dissolute all clusters,
table and choose the next-hop node and all nodes renew the original relationship, system updates and
whose probability is the biggest turns back into initialization, loops until all the energy depletion of
all the nodes.
Reach
N
the destination
node
4. Performance evaluation
Y
End
To test the performance of the RDICMR, first of all, we should
Fig. 4. The process of establishing routing path. determine the configuration of simulation parameters. After
 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149 145

that, we test the performance of the RDICMR in three aspects: Table 4

immune rules driven, immune multi-path data transmission and RDICMR Performance with different value
of Standard_Energy.
the comprehensive network performance. Firstly, we use Matlab
to compare network performance between the DCRA and the Standard_Energy Lifetime of RDICMR
rule-driven DCRA (RDCRA). Then we compare the network
40%E0 2675
performance between the RDICMR and the rule-driven multi-
50%E0 2450
path routing algorithm with dynamic clustering but without 60%E0 2763
immune mechanism (RDCMR). Next, we compare network per-
formance (the lifetime, the amount of data transmission and the
remaining energy of network) between the TEEN, the DCRA and
the RDICMR. Table 5
RDICMR Performance with different value
of Standard_Affinity.
4.1. The selection of the parameters
Standard_Affinity Lifetime of RDICMR

We divide the parameters to two parts: the conventional 0.4 2521

wireless sensor network parameters; the rule-driven user-defined 0.5 2632
parameters. 0.6 2653
0.7 2575
0.75 2453
4.1.1. Conventional wireless sensor network parameters 0.8 2589
The conventional wireless sensor network parameters are
determined according to the common parameter settings. The
conventional parameters includes EA, number of nodes, sink
coordinates, E0 , Eelec , εf s , εmp , EDA , packetLength, ctrPacketLength, Table 6
The configuration of simulation parameters.
the proportion of cluster head P, hard threshold ðH T Þ, soft
threshold ðST Þ, M, S, Evaluation index of network death, ω1 , ω2 , ω3 . Parameter Value

4.1.2. The rule-driven user-defined parameters EA (Event area) 100 m  100 m

Number of nodes (N) 100
The rule-driven user-defined parameters include: Basic_NUM,
Sink coordinates (50, 175)
Standard_Energy, Standard_Affinity. E0 0:2 J
Eelec 50 nJ=bit
1) Basic_NUM εf s 10 pJ=bit=m2
The parameter Basic_NUM is the one that can be adjusted by εmp 0:0013 pJ=bit=m4
EDA 5 nJ=bit=signal
different events. We analyze the influence of different values of
packetLength 6400 bit
the parameter as shown in Table 3. ctrPacketLength 200 bit
To let the algorithm be more persuasive in the following P 0.05
comparison, we select the value of Basic_NUM with the worst HT 50
ST 5
effect. So we select the value of Basic_NUM as 0 in the fol- M 100 m
lowing simulation. S 40
Evaluation index of network death 30%  N
2) Standard_Energy Basic_NUM 0
ω1 0.9
The parameter Standard_Energy is the one that can be adjusted ω2 0.05
by different events. We analyze the influence of different values ω3 0.05
of the parameter as shown in Table 4. Standard_Energy 50%E0
To let the algorithm be more persuasive in the following Standard_Affinity 0.75

comparison, we select the value of Standard_Energy with the

worst effect. So we select the value of Standard_Energy as 50 worst effect. So we select the value of Standard_Affinity as 0.75
%E0 in the following simulation. in the following simulation.
The main simulation parameters are as shown in Table 6.
3) Standard_Affinity
The parameter Standard_Affinity is the one that can be adjus- 4.2. Performance analysis of immune rule-driven
ted by different events. We analyze the influence of different
values of the parameter as shown in Table 5. Comparing the network performance between the DCRA and
To let the algorithm be more persuasive in the following the RDCRA, we can see from the Figs. 5–7 that the performance of
comparison, we select the value of Standard_Affinity with the the RDCRA are improved in the network lifetime, the amount of
data transmission and the remaining energy of network compared
Table 3 with the DCRA.
RDICMR Performance with different Due to the nodes are distributed in EA randomly, in order to
value of Basic_NUM.
make the advantages of immune rule-driven more persuasive,
Basic_NUM Lifetime of RDICMR we executed the DCRA and RDCRA 20 times to count the
average performance of them as shown in Table 7. We can see
0 2430 from Table 7 that the performance of the RDCRA is improved
2 2692 in the network lifetime, the amount of data transmission
4 2725
6 2970
and the remaining energy of network compared with
the DCRA.
146 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149

100 Table 7
RDCRA
The performance analysis of DCRA and RDCRA.
DCRA
95 Algorithm

Performance DCRA RDCRA Performance

Lifetime of the network

90
improved

Lifetime/round 2392 2603 8.82%

85
Data transmission/packet 1437 1787 24.36%
Remaining energy (Network residual / / 0.53
energy difference at the same time)/J
80

100
75 RDCMR
RDICMR

70 95
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
time/round

Lifetime of the network

90
Fig. 5. Comparison of lifetime between DCRA and RDCRA.

85

1800

80
1600

1400
The amount of data transmission)

75

1200

70
1000 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
time/round
800
Fig. 8. Comparison of lifetime between RDCMR and RDICMR.
600
900
400 RDCMR
RDICMR
800
200
RDCRA
DCRA 700
The amount of data transmission

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
time/round 600

Fig. 6. Comparison of the amount of data transmission between DCRA and RDCRA. 500

400

300
RDCRA
20
RDCRA 200

18 DCRA
100

16
The remaining energy of network

0
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
14 time/round

12 Fig. 9. Comparison of the amount of data transmission between RDCMR and

RDICMR.
10

8
routing to transfer data without immune mechanism, we can
6
see from the Figs. 8–10 that the performance of the RDICMR is
4 improved in the network lifetime, the amount of data trans-
mission and the remaining energy of network compared with
2
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 the RDCMR.
time/round Due to the nodes are distributed in EA randomly, in order to
Fig. 7. Comparison of the remaining energy of network between DCRA and RDCRA. make the advantages of immune energy multi-path data trans-
mission more persuasive, we executed the RDCMR and RDICMR 20
4.3. Performance analysis of immune energy multi-path data times to count the average performance of them as shown in
transmission Table 8. We can see from Table 8 that the performance of the
RDICMR is improved in the network lifetime, the amount of data
Comparing the network performance between the RDICMR transmission and the remaining energy of network compared with
and the RDCMR which uses the typical energy multi-path the RDCMR.
 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149 147

20 1800
RDCMR
18 RDICMR 1600

16 1400

The amount of data transmission

The remaining energy of network)

14
1200

12
1000
10
800
8
600
6
400
4
RDICMR
200
2 TEEN
DCRA
0
0 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000
time/round
time/round
Fig. 12. Comparison of the amount of data transmission between TEEN, DCRA and
Fig. 10. Comparison of the remaining energy of network between RDCMR and
RDICMR.
RDICMR.

20
Table 8 RDICMR
The performance analysis of RDCMR and RDICMR. 18
TEEN
DCRA
Algorithm 16

The remaining energy of network)

Performance RDCMR RDICMR Performance 14
improved
12
Lifetime/round 3572 4021 12.57%
Data transmission/packet 851 876 2.94% 10
Remaining energy (Network residual / / 1.15
energy difference at the same 8
time)/J
6

100 4
RDICMR
TEEN 2
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
95 DCRA
time/round

Fig. 13. Comparison of the remaining energy of network between TEEN, DCRA and
90 RDICMR.
Lifetime of network

85
Table 9
The performance analysis of TEEN, DCRA and RDICMR.
80
Algorithm

75 Performance TEEN DCRA RDICMR

Lifetime/round 317 2397 2741

70 Data transmission/packet 305 2476 2597
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000
time/round
Network residual energy difference with TEEN at the / 8.03 9.57
same time/J
Fig. 11. Comparison of lifetime between TEEN, DCRA and RDICMR.

4.4. Analysis of comprehensive network performance Fig. 12 shows the comparison of the amount of data transmis-
sion between the TEEN, the DCRA and the DICMR, abscissa is time,
We compare TEEN algorithm and DCRA algorithm with our ordinate is the amount of data transmission of the network. We
algorithm. TEEN is the typical event-driven routing algorithm, it is can see from Fig. 12 that during the whole lifetime, the amount of
necessary to provide our algorithm is better than it. DCRA is an
data transmission of the RDICMR is more than that of the other
event-driven routing algorithm considering the feature of the
algorithms, and the utilization efficiency of the RDICMR is higher
events, and it is necessary to provide our algorithm with it.
than that of the other algorithms.
Fig. 11 shows the comparison of lifetime among the TEEN, the
Fig. 13 shows the comparison of the remaining energy of
DCRA and the RDICMR, abscissa is time, ordinate is the number of
live nodes. We can see from Fig. 11 that under the condition of network between the TEEN, the DCRA and the RDICMR,
same events, the lifetime of the RDICMR is longer than that of the abscissa is time, ordinate is the remaining energy of network.
other algorithms. Because when similar events happen, the TEEN We can see from the figure that at the same time, the
and the DCRA will re-establish routing paths and transmit the residual energy of the RDICMR is higher than that of other
same data repeatedly, as such consume more energy. algorithms.
148 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149
Due to the nodes are distributed in EA randomly, in order to
make the advantages of RDICMR more persuasive, we executed
the TEEN, DCRA and RDICMR 20 times to count the average per-
formance of them as shown in Table 9. We can see from Table 9
that the performance of the RDICMR is the best in the network
lifetime, the amount of data transmission and the remaining
energy of network among them.
5. Conclusions
Based on the DCRA, we use the biological immune mechanism
and rule-driven to the event-driven clustering routing algorithm,
and put forward a rule-driven multi-path routing algorithm with
dynamic immune clustering (RDICMR) for event-driven WSNs. In
the proposed algorithm, if the event satisfies the affinity rule and
the energy rule at the same time, then we update the cluster
lifetime and copy the cluster structure and routing paths of the
historical event according to the implementation rules, which
reduces the energy consumption. The simulation results show
that: 1) the lifetime, the amount of data transmission of the
RDICMR is more than those of the TEEN and the DCRA; 2) the
residual energy of the RDICMR is higher than that of the TEEN and
the DCRA at the same moment; 3) the performance of the RDICMR
is improved than that of the DCRA in the network lifetime, the
amount of data transmission and the remaining energy of net-
work; 4) the performance of the RDICMR is improved than that of
the RDCMR in the network lifetime, the amount of data trans-
mission and the remaining energy of network.
In the future, we will study on the application of biological
immune mechanism and rule-driven in WSNs with multiple
mobile sinks. For instance, we can apply them to the research on
how to reduce the energy consumption and how to move the
mobile sinks reasonable in the WSNs with multiple mobile sinks.
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Dr. Yongsheng Ding (M'00-SM'05) is currently a Pro-
fessor at College of Information Science and Technol-
ogy, Donghua University, Shanghai, China. He obtained
the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering
from Donghua University, Shanghai, China in 1989 and
1998, respectively. From 1996 to 1998, he was a Visiting
Scientist at Biomedical Engineering Center, The Uni-
versity of Texas Medical Branch, TX, USA. From Feb-
ruary 2005 to April 2005, he was a Visiting Professor at
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Wayne State University, MI, USA. From September 2007
to February 2008, he was a Visiting Professor at Har-
vard Medical School, Harvard University, MA, USA. He
serves as Senior Member of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
He has published more than 300 technical papers, and seven research monograph/
advanced textbooks. His scientific interests include computational intelligence,
network intelligence, nature-inspired technologies, intelligent robots, Internet of
things, and digitized textile technology.
Rui Chen is currently a master student at College of
Information Science and Technology, Donghua Uni-
versity, Shanghai, China. She obtained the B.S. degree in
Automation from Donghua University, Shanghai, China
in 2013. Her scientific interests include intelligent
control, and Internet of Things.
 Y. Ding et al. / Neurocomputing 203 (2016) 139–149 149

Dr. Kuangrong Hao is currently a Professor at the

College of Information Science and Technology, Don-
ghua University, Shanghai, China. She obtained her B.S.
degree in Mechanical Engineering from Hebei Uni-
versity of Technology, Tianjin, China in 1984, her M.S.
degree from Ecole Normale Supérieur de Cachan, Paris,
France in 1991, and her Ph.D. degree in Mathematics
and Computer Science from Ecole Nationale des Ponts
et Chaussées, Paris, France in 1995. She has published
more than 100 technical papers, and three research
monographs. Her scientific interests include machine
vision, image processing, robot control, intelligent
control, and digitized textile technology.