Design of Energy-Efficient Wireless Communication Networks Using IoT-Based Traffic Management

Abstract

Rapid urbanization has intensified traffic congestion in major cities, leading to increased fuel consumption, air pollution, and economic losses. Traditional traffic control systems, based on fixed-cycle signals, are ineffective in handling dynamic urban traffic patterns. This study proposes an IoT-based Energy-Efficient Wireless Network (IoT-EWN) for smart traffic management in Peshawar, Pakistan. The proposed system integrates IoT sensor nodes, wireless relay nodes, and cloud-enabled gateways to monitor real-time traffic density, dynamically adjust signal timings, and transmit data through energy-efficient multi-hop communication. Key components include a Duty-Cycle Adaptive MAC (DCA-MAC) protocol, a fuzzy logic-based signal control algorithm, and an energy-aware routing protocol (GEAR-T). The system was evaluated through simulations using MATLAB R2023b and NS-3 (v3.38) over a 4 km × 4 km urban grid with 24 intersections. Results show that IoT-EWN reduces network energy consumption by 47.3% compared to traditional networks and 28.6% compared to standard IoT systems. It also achieves a packet delivery ratio of 96.8%, latency of 23.4 ms, and throughput of 4.87 Mbps. These findings demonstrate that the proposed architecture significantly improves energy efficiency, reliability, and real-time responsiveness, making it a practical solution for smart traffic management in developing urban environments.