{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,9]],"date-time":"2026-05-09T16:57:34Z","timestamp":1778345854786,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":30,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,13]],"date-time":"2021-01-13T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1610496000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>One of the major concerns in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is most of the sensor nodes are powered through limited lifetime of energy-constrained batteries, which majorly affects the performance, quality, and lifetime of the network. Therefore, diverse clustering methods are proposed to improve energy efficiency of the WSNs. In the meantime, fifth-generation (5G) communications require that several Internet of Things (IoT) applications need to adopt the use of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems to provide an improved capacity over multi-path channel environment. In this paper, we study a clustering technique for MIMO-based IoT communication systems to achieve energy efficiency. In particular, a novel MIMO-based energy-efficient unequal hybrid clustering (MIMO-HC) protocol is proposed for applications on the IoT in the 5G environment and beyond. Experimental analysis is conducted to assess the effectiveness of the suggested MIMO-HC protocol and compared with existing state-of-the-art research. The proposed MIMO-HC scheme achieves less energy consumption and better network lifetime compared to existing techniques. Specifically, the proposed MIMO-HC improves the network lifetime by approximately 3\u00d7 as long as the first node and the final node dies as compared with the existing protocol. Moreover, the energy that cluster heads consume on the proposed MIMO-HC is 40% less than that expended in the existing protocol.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s21020537","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,13]],"date-time":"2021-01-13T21:50:54Z","timestamp":1610574654000},"page":"537","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":39,"title":["Energy-Efficient Hybrid Routing Protocol for IoT Communication Systems in 5G and Beyond"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"21","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4106-4559","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mohammad","family":"Baniata","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Soongsil University, Seoul 06978, Korea"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2063-9197","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Haftu Tasew","family":"Reda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and IT, La Trobe University, Plenty Rd., Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5396-8897","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Naveen","family":"Chilamkurti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Computer Science and IT, La Trobe University, Plenty Rd., Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9695-7947","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alsharif","family":"Abuadbba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"CSIRO\u2019s Data61 and Cybersecurity Research, CSIRO, Marsfield, NSW 2122, Australia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,1,13]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"256","DOI":"10.1080\/02564602.2017.1279988","article-title":"On the Application of IoT: Meteorological Information Display System Based on LoRa Wireless Communication","volume":"35","author":"Reda","year":"2018","journal-title":"IETE Tech. 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