Journal of Bionic Engineering (2023) 20:81–104   https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00263-4

A Hybrid Marine Predator Algorithm for Thermal-aware Routing Scheme in Wireless Body Area Networks 

Tao Hai1,2,3  · Jincheng Zhou1,2 · Mohammad Masdari4  · Haydar Abdulameer Marhoon5,6

1 School of Computer and Information, Qiannan Normal University for Nationalities, Duyun 558000, Guizhou, China
2 Key Laboratory of Complex Systems and Intelligent Optimization of Guizhou, Duyun 558000, Guizhou, China
3 Institute for Big Data Analytics and Artifcial Intelligence (IBDAAI), Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
4 Department of Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Urmia Branch, Urmia, Iran
5 Information and Communication Technology Research Group, Scientifc Research Center, Al-Ayen University, Thi-Qar, Iraq 6 College of Computer Sciences and Information Technology, University of Kerbala, Karbala, Iraq 

Abstract  Thermal-aware routing protocols in WBANs consider temperature factors in the routing process for preventing overheating of the tissues surrounding the sensor nodes. However, providing an energy-efcient and thermal-aware routing in WBANs is a challenging issue. To deal with this problem, this article presents a novel temperature-aware routing protocol that applies Mamdani-based Fuzzy Logic Controllers (FLCs) for selecting the next forwarding node in routing data packets. These FLCs apply fve important input factors such as the priority of the packet, and sensor node's remaining energy, temperature, distance, and link path loss. Also, a new hybrid version of the Marine Predator Algorithm (MPA), named MPAOA is presented by combining the exploration and exploitation phases of the MPA and Arithmetic Optimization Algorithm (AOA). This algorithm is efectively applied for selecting the best possible set of fuzzy rules for FLCs and tuning their fuzzy sets. Extensive experiments conducted in the Castalia simulator exhibit that the proposed temperature and priority-aware routing scheme can outperform other well-known routing schemes such as LATOR, TTRP, TAEO, ATAR, and EOCC-TARA in terms of metrics such as sensor nodes lifetime, the average temperature of the sensor nodes, and the percentage of the packets routed through non-overheated paths. Besides, it is shown that the MPAOA outperforms other algorithms such as Bat Algorithm (BA), Genetic Algorithm (GA), AOA, and MPA regarding the specifed metrics. 

Keywords  WBANs · Multi-hop routing · Temperature · Priority · Fuzzy logic · Bio-inspiration

Fig. 1 WBANs and E-Healthcare systems