A hybrid genetic algorithm for the minimum energy broadcast problem in wireless ad hoc networks

Given a wireless ad hoc network with a specified source node that has to broadcast messages to all other nodes in the network, the minimum energy broadcast (MEB) problem seeks a broadcast scheme for this network with minimum energy consumption. The MEB problem is NP-Hard. This paper describes a hybrid approach to the MEB problem combining a genetic algorithm with a local search heuristic. We have compared our hybrid approach against the best heuristic approaches known for this problem. Our approach outperformed all these approaches and emerged as the best. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.