## 1 Introduction  
In recent times, the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile edge computing (MEC) are becoming familiar components in fulfilling forthcoming technical necessities. The technological expansions mainly focus on the demand for information transfer, minimizing load on the network, and throughput [1]. Handling minimum postponement, data memory storage, and being able to function in crucial application zones are the requirements for networks in smart grids, smart cities, reliable platforms, and in transportation [2]. The growing amount of data could be dealt with using MEC gadgets that have a specific groundwork for obtaining network analytics, and network optimization by using IoT. With rapidly increasing numbers of IoT gadgets, the creation of self-governing networks for IoT gadgets has received increasing attention by scientists [3]. In the concept of network executives, the chief goal is to create a power-proficient multi-hop network that can connect source-to-destination nodes via mobile phone relay nodes (RNs) through the use of power restraints [4]. Thus, the network topologies are termed respectively in order to wirelessly connect between RNs, which are IoT gadgets. As a result of recent progression in microelectromechanical system (MEMS) technologies and wireless networks, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have garnered significant attention by different applications such as military, healthcare, disaster management, industrial automation, etc. [5]. Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are an integral part of the IoT. Therefore, WSN applications have found associations in society, the computing world, and the physical world. In common terms, WSNs comprise a large number of tiny sensors dispersed over a vast area, accompanied by base stations (BS) that assemble information from these sensor nodes. All sensor nodes (SN) have restricted power supplies, and have the abilities to process data, sense, and transmit [6]. Hierarchical-based (or cluster-based) routing is a familiar method with some specific benefits that relate to scalability and efficiency in communications. The concepts of hierarchical routing have been implemented in order to attain power efficiency in WSNs [7]. In contrast, lower power nodes are used only for sensor related work in areas that are nearer to the target. Thus, making clusters and allocating specific jobs to cluster heads (CHs) can importantly donate to the scalability of the system, its lifespan, and its power efficiency. Scalability is a critical aspect in WSNs that has not been well established in many of the protocols as a result of the initial assumptions made. For example, cluster-based protocol generally considers one sink with cluster heads inside the coverage of the sink [8]. Under those considerations, WSNs lack scalability, and result in communications that are excessive in terms of their power requirements. Hence, slightly raising the total quantity of device nodes or the width of the network will lead to overloading that develops exponentially, and a hindrance that contains only a single sink; these can strange the network. Hierarchical routing is an effective way to diminish power utilisation inside the cluster and perform information accumulation. In addition to this, this approach permits merging tasks to decrease the number of transferred packets to the sink [9]. All perceptions of the nodes, from hardware devices to their accomplished processes, will aid in distributing the power load [10]. Thankfully, hierarchical routing has several roles to assist us in distinguishing potential stages in protocol processes; the availability of two operation modes in the sensor nodes can estimate comparatively higher energy expenses. However, various transmission modes, namely cluster heads and normal sensors, may become advantageous if executed in every layer. This project emphasises the use of a better metaheuristic-driven energy-aware cluster-based routing (IMD-EACBR) scheme for IoT-assisted WSN.