Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into various swarm intelligence-based routing protocols for Internet of Things (IoT), which are currently available for the Mobile Ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). There are several issues which are limiting the growth of IoT. These include privacy, security, reliability, link failures, routing, heterogeneity, etc. The routing issues of MANETs and WSNs impose almost the same requirements for IoT routing mechanism. The recent work of worldwide researchers is focused on this area. Design/methodology/approach The paper provides the literature review for various standard routing protocols. The different comparative analysis of the routing protocols is done. The paper surveys various routing protocols available for the seamless connectivity of things in IoT. Various features, advantages and challenges of the said protocols are discussed. The protocols are based on the principles of swarm intelligence. Swarm intelligence is applied to achieve optimality and efficiency in solving the complex, multi-hop and dynamic requirements of the wireless networks. The application of the ant colony optimization technique tries to provide answers to many routing issues. Findings Using the swarm intelligence and ant colony optimization principles, it has been seen that the protocols’ efficiency definitely increases and also provides more scope for the development of more robust, reliable and efficient routing protocols for the IoT. Research limitations/implications The existing protocols do not solve all reliability issues and efficient routing is still not achieved completely. As of now no techniques or protocols are efficient enough to cover all the issues and provide the solution. There is a need to develop new protocols for the communication which will cater to all these needs. Efficient and scalable routing protocols adaptable to different scenarios and network size variation capable to find optimal routes are required. Practical implications The various routing protocols are discussed and there is also an introduction to new parameters which can strengthen the protocols. This can lead to encouragement of readers, as well as researchers, to analyze and develop new routing algorithms. Social implications The paper provides better understanding of the various routing protocols and provides better comparative analysis for the use of swarm-based research methodology in the development of routing algorithms exclusively for the IoT. Originality/value This is a review paper which discusses the various routing protocols available for MANETs and WSNs and provides the groundwork for the development of new intelligent routing protocols for IoT.

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The paper provides insight into various swarm intelligence based routing protocols for Internet of Things (IoT), which are currently available for the Mobile Ad-hoc networks (MANETs) and wireless sensor networks (WSNs). There are several issues which are limiting the growth of Internet of Things. These include the reliability, link failures, routing, heterogeneity etc. The MANETs and WSNs routing issues impose almost same requirements for IoT routing mechanism. The recent work of the worldwide researchers is focused on this area. protocols are based on the principles of swarm intelligence. The swarm intelligence is applied to achieve the optimality and the efficiency in solving the complex, multi-hop and dynamic requirements of the wireless networks. The application of the ACO technique tries to provide answers to many routing issues. Using the swarm intelligence and ant colony optimization principles, it has been seen that, the protocols’ efficiency definitely increases and also provides more scope for the development of more robust, reliable and efficient routing protocols for the IoT. As the various standard protocols available for MANETs and WSNs are not reliable enough, the paper finds the need of some efficient routing algorithms for IoT.

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