A Multi-Path Unequal Clustering Energy-Efficient Routing Algorithm for Monitoring Networks in Coal Mine Tunnel

Tunnels in underground coal mine are complex and variable environments, where the lack of scalability of wired monitoring systems leads to complex wiring and high maintenance costs. In wireless sensor networks, due to the limited energy capacity of sensor nodes, how to balance the energy consumption, extend the network lifetime, and achieve the optimal resource utilization is a critical issue. To stably monitor the underground coal mine tunnels and ensure the safe production of underground coal mines, we propose a multipath unequal clustering energy-efficient routing algorithm based on ideal communication hop distance according to the characteristics of the underground coal mine tunnel. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can be applied in underground coal mine tunnels and solve the problem of uneven energy distribution of nodes in different tunnel regions, which greatly improves the service life of the underground monitoring network.