Exploring Energy-Efficient Routing in IoT-based WSNs: A WoS Bibliometric-based Review

The development of energy-efficient routing (EER) is crucial to maximize performance and extend the life of networked devices, as demonstrated by the Internet of Things’ (IoT) wireless sensor networks’ exponential growth. The Web of Science (WoS) database is utilized in this study’s thorough bibliometric analysis to carry out an in-depth analysis of this crucial sector. Spanning articles from 2015 to 2024, the analysis leverages the robust functionalities of the "bibliometrix" library within the RStudio environment, ensuring methodological rigor through comprehensive evaluations utilizing the AMSTAR and PRISMA checklists. The investigation sheds light on a multitude of dimensions pertaining to EER in IoT-based WSNs, including trends in yearly publication rates, prominent keywords, citation dynamics, source impact, and emerging research gaps. Additionally, the study scrutinizes prevalent EER protocols, EER techniques for reducing energy consumption, and the role of AI based techniques such as ML and DL in enhancing energy efficiency within IoT-based WSNs. By synthesizing these dimensions, this review offers a panoramic overview of the research landscape, identifying key contributors, influential publications, and leading nations in this domain. Importantly, this research points to interesting directions for further investigation, which will further the development of EER in IoT-based WSNs.