Genetic Algorithm based Energy Optimized Clustering Approach for MANETs

MANETS have been used to form local networks without any predefined structure and to handle a large number of nodes they have been grouped to form clusters. Every cluster has a CH to maintain the integrity of the cluster. A wide variety of algorithms have been proposed to choose CH among other nodes and one of them is by using heuristics. Heuristics have been used in solving many problems and it has a huge impact on reducing the processing to find approximate results which go in NP time. Many networking problems have been tried to solve with this approach and they can solve the issues such as routing and optimizing. MANETs having multiple wireless nodes facea similar issue which can be solved by forming clusters to reduce network overhead, as these nodes are battery-powered devices having a constraint on power which gives birth to the requirement of an approach that can prolong battery life and hence improve network lifetime. This paper compares LEACH protocol with GA regarding energy constraint and an algorithm is proposed which is based on a combination of GA and LEACH.