LCIPA: Lightweight clustering protocol for industry 4.0 enabled precision agriculture

Smart agriculture using the Internet of Things (IoT) is an Industry 4.0 technology used in rural and urban environments. Industry 4.0 is a new class of the Industrial Revolution that focuses heavily on automation, interconnection, real-time data, and artificial intelligence (AI). With the growing demand for agricultural automation to increase farm output while meeting minimal criteria, smart farming has emerged as one of the fundamental applications of Industry 4.0. We propose an AI-based smart farming protocol since AI approaches are essential for the performance improvement of Industry 4.0 standards. We design Lightweight Clustering Protocol for Industry 4.0 Enabled Precision Agriculture (LCIPA) protocol via clustering and routing algorithms. Smart farming such as Industry 4.0, tackles long-distance communications, energy efficiency, computing efficiency, and assured QoS performance. In the clustering phase, we compute the direct and indirect sensor node parameters to produce the integrated fitness function value. The optimal selection of Cluster Head (CH) and reliable data forwarders is obtained using this novel fitness function. We establish the objective function for clustering and routing to reduce energy consumption and communication overhead while maximizing network performance using an integrated fitness function. The proposed fitness function is used to develop the Bacterial Foraging Algorithm (FBA) for optimum CH selection. A lightweight route discovery approach is based on periodic fitness ratings for inter-cluster and intra-cluster data transfer without specific processing. The simulation results reveal the efficiency of the LCIPA protocol compared to underlying methods.