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.