{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T14:09:07Z","timestamp":1789135747469,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"18","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1789084800000},"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>Wireless sensor networks in agricultural fields face abrupt node failures from environmental stress and physical damage, yet most clustering protocols assume fault-free operation. This paper proposes SMA-WSN, a failure-aware clustering protocol inspired by the Slime Mold Algorithm, selecting cluster heads via a tri-objective fitness that combines residual energy, base-station proximity, and local coverage. Evaluated in NS-3.47 against 11 protocols over six agricultural topology archetypes\u2014spatial node-layout patterns derived from Algerian field geometries and densities, not biophysical canopy or soil-moisture propagation models\u2014and five failure rates (18,000 runs, 50 seeds), SMA-WSN achieves the highest per-hop delivery ratio at every failure rate and ranks first overall on that metric, with its largest margins on the heterogeneous, oasis, and sparse-Saharan terrains (T4\u2013T6). We also report an end-to-end delivery ratio, counting a datum only when it reaches the base station: under that stricter definition, all 12 protocols change rank, and SMA-WSN places seventh. We report both and treat the divergence between them as a result in its own right. SMA-WSN achieves the highest per-hop PDR while remaining statistically tied with the best protocols in energy fairness (Jain index 0.922, within one confidence half-width of the leaders GWO-LEACH, PSO-LEACH, and FGO-QL). An ablation over the three fitness terms and their weights shows this advantage is robust to objective weighting and arises from the SMA selection dynamics rather than any single fitness term: no term, including coverage, is individually decisive, so the advantage does not depend on a finely tuned weighting. Disabling the stochastic wrap phase, by contrast, costs 11.4 percentage points of per-hop PDR, identifying it as the mechanism actually responsible for the gain. On First Node Death under failure, SMA-WSN is mid-field rather than dominant; we report this honestly and discuss it as an open question for follow-up work distinguishing energy-exhaustion deaths from abrupt hardware failures.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26185776","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,11]],"date-time":"2026-09-11T13:29:29Z","timestamp":1789133369000},"page":"5776","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["SMA-WSN: Failure-Aware Slime-Mold-Inspired Clustering and Per-Hop Versus End-to-End Delivery Analysis in Agricultural Wireless Sensor Networks"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-5623-4610","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Messaoud","family":"Belloula","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"LAMIE (Laboratoire d\u2019Applications des Math\u00e9matiques \u00e0 l\u2019Informatique et \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9lectronique), Department of Computer Sciences, University Batna 2, Batna 05000, Algeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"software","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"investigation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"data-curation","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2970-9625","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Souheila","family":"Bouam","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LAMIE (Laboratoire d\u2019Applications des Math\u00e9matiques \u00e0 l\u2019Informatique et \u00e0 l\u2019\u00c9lectronique), Department of Computer Sciences, University Batna 2, Batna 05000, Algeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"conceptualization","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"methodology","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-original-draft","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"validation","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7406-7633","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lyamine","family":"Guezouli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LEREESI (Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Smart Systems) Laboratory, HNS-RE2SD (Higher National School of Renewable Energies, Environment and Sustainable Development), Batna 05000, Algeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1566-3005","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Djallel Eddine","family":"Boubiche","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"LEREESI (Laboratory of Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Smart Systems) Laboratory, HNS-RE2SD (Higher National School of Renewable Energies, Environment and Sustainable Development), Batna 05000, Algeria"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"supervision","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4421-3775","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Homero","family":"Toral-Cruz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ingenier\u00eda y Tecnolog\u00eda, Universidad Aut\u00f3noma del Estado de Quintana Roo, Chetumal 77019, Mexico"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"Rafael","family":"Sanchez-Lara","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda y Arquitectura, Universidad Aut\u00f3noma del Carmen, Ciudad del Carmen 24180, Mexico"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2188-9892","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rafael","family":"Mart\u00ednez-Pel\u00e1ez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unidad Acad\u00e9mica de Computaci\u00f3n, Universidad Polit\u00e9cnica de Sinaloa, Mazatl\u00e1n 82199, Mexico"},{"name":"Departamento de Ingenier\u00eda de Sistemas y Computaci\u00f3n, Universidad Cat\u00f3lica del Norte, Antofagasta 1270709, Chile"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"},{"role":"writing-review-editing","vocabulary":"credit"},{"role":"funding-acquisition","vocabulary":"credit"}]},{"given":"David Ernesto Troncoso","family":"Romero","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Divisi\u00f3n de Ciencias Multidisciplinarias Canc\u00fan, Universidad Aut\u00f3noma 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