OICC Press Majlesi Journal of Electrical Engineering 2345-3796 19 4 (December 2025) 2025 12 25 Enhancement of Cluster based Routing Protocol for Wireless Mesh Networks with Modified Chicken Swarm Optimization 10.57647/j.mjee.2025.18027 EN Damilare O. Akande Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Ogbomoso, Nigeria https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2229-8074 James S. Osunniyi Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Open Distance Learning, Ogbomoso, Nigeria Zacheaus K. Adeyemo Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Ogbomoso, Nigeria Ayobami. O. Fawole The Polytechnic Ibadan, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Ibadan, Nigeria https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2532-3810 Journal Article 2025 12 25 Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) offer a promising approach to pervasive communication with efficient network coverage using minimal infrastructure. However, current WMN routing protocols are inefficient due to high energy consumption. This is caused by limited battery life of nodes, uneven distribution of traffic (load imbalance), and long data transmission distances, all of which shorten network lifetime. This paper proposes a new routing protocol for WMNs called Modified Chicken Swarm Optimization-based Efficient Cluster Head Selection (MCSO-ECHS). MCSO-ECHS leverages the network gateway to select optimal Cluster Heads (CHs). An objective function, considering both residual energy and node distance, is used for CH selection. The MCSO algorithm then refines the selection process to ensure balanced energy consumption among these energy-constrained nodes. This approach prolongs the network lifetime and improves overall energy efficiency. Simulation results demonstrate that MCSO-ECHS outperforms existing protocols in terms of energy consumption, network lifetime, throughput, end-to-end delay and packet delivery ratio, significantly enhancing the energy efficiency of WMNs.