Abstract
Routing in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) networks is critical for effective data transfer and overall network performance. However, current UAV routing algorithms exhibit high latency, poor route selection, excessive energy consumption, and limited flexibility in changing network topologies. To overcome these limitations, this paper proposes a new routing strategy that uses the Shuffled Frog Leaping Algorithm (SFLA) to improve UAV network routing. Using a two-phase optimization approach considering Quality of Service (QoS), our system combines global exploration with local exploitation, unlike previous techniques. This hybrid method enables UAVs to dynamically change their trajectories, helping to choose the best path even in fast-changing surroundings. Our approach's self-adaptive population-based search mechanism accelerates convergence and removes a common weakness in traditional metaheuristic algorithms-premature standstill elimination-which determines its effectiveness. By constantly adjusting UAV routing patterns depending on energy economy, latency, and throughput characteristics, SFLA guarantees that UAV networks transmit effectively and consistently. Based on experimental data, our method outperforms benchmark alternatives in terms of energy use by 3.11%, latency by 5.14%, and network lifetime by 2.25%. These developments make our approach ideal for real-time applications including aerial surveillance and disaster response that call for high data transfer speeds and great energy economy.