Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 32, No. 2, 2019 133 IoT enabled adaptive clustering based energy efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks Muhammad Asad* School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116000, China Email: asadi244@gmail.com *Corresponding author Muhammad Aslam Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, WAH CANTT, 47040, Pakistan Email: aslamhayat@mail.dlut.edu.cn Yao Nianmin and Naeem Ayoub School of Computer Science and Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116000, China Email: lucos@dlut.edu.cn Email: nomi@mail.dlut.edu.cn Khalid Ibrahim Qureshi School of Software Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116000, China Email: khalidibrahim@mail.dlut.edu.cn Ehsan Ullah Munir Department of Computer Science, COMSATS University Islamabad, WAH CANTT, 47040, Pakistan Email: ehsanmunir@comsats.edu.pk Abstract: In this paper, we propose a new internet of things (IoT) enabled multi adaptive clustering (MAC) energy efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to minimise energy dissipation and improve the network performance. This new technique holds the hybrid cluster formation algorithm in which the network topology is divided in two regions where the first region is centralised and the second region is distributed. Both regions contain homogeneous and heterogeneous nodes while the sink is static and located in the centre of both networks. Specifically, proposed IoT enabled MAC routing protocol holds the major three properties: enabling of resources to sensor nodes through IoT, hybrid cluster formation to distribute the network load evenly among sensor nodes and a new mechanism to minimise the energy consumption in long range data transmission. In all of our experiments MAC achieves greater performance than state-of-the-art routing protocols. Moreover, performance evaluation proofs that MAC outperforms in critical network environment. Keywords: internet of things; IoT; wsnS; wireless sensor networks; energy efficient; routing protocols. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Asad, M., Aslam, M., Nianmin, Y., Ayoub, N., Qureshi, K.I. and Munir, E.U. (2019) ‘IoT enabled adaptive clustering based energy efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks’, Int. J. Ad Hoc and Ubiquitous Computing, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp.133–145. Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.