Optimization of the ZigBee Routing Algorithm for the Beidou Sugar Beet Environmental Monitoring System

In remote areas where sugar beets are grown on a large scale, inadequate ground-based communication networks can easily lead to information silos in farmland, as well as technical challenges such as uneven node power consumption and short lifespans during the long-term operation of wireless sensor networks. To address these challenges, a real-time field environment monitoring system for sugar beet fields based on the Beidou satellite system and ZigBee wireless sensor networks has been developed, employing a three-tier architecture comprising a perception layer, a network layer, and an application layer. The system uses ARM as the core of the data acquisition nodes and integrates sensors for temperature, humidity, light intensity, atmospheric pressure, and dissolved oxygen with a Beidou positioning module. Field data are aggregated via a ZigBee mesh network and transmitted remotely using a dual-link Beidou short message protocol. To prevent uneven energy consumption in ZigBee networks, an improved energy-balanced routing algorithm, Energy-Balanced Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (EB-LEACH), is proposed. By optimizing cluster head election, adaptive competition radius mechanisms, and inter-cluster multi-hop routing strategies through multi-factor weighting, the algorithm achieves a globally balanced distribution of network energy consumption. Our experimental tests demonstrate that, compared to the traditional LEACH protocol, this algorithm increases the number of rounds until the first node fails by 87.3%, extends the network half-life by 110.48%, and improves total packet delivery by 118.3%. Our test results indicate that the improved routing algorithm performs better, and the accuracy of the sensor measurements meets the practical requirements for environmental monitoring in sugar beet fields.