Optimization of Clustering Techniques using Energy Thresholds in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

A wireless sensor network consists of a large number of tiny devices having low-power transceivers that can be an effective tool for gathering data from a particular or variety of environments. Collected data determining the characteristics of particular environment is sent to the data processing center called base station. As sensor nodes have limited resources, the path for communication between sensor node and base station should be chosen such that total energy consumed along that path is minimized. Sensor nodes are grouped into clusters for high scalability and better data aggregation. Clusters create hierarchical WSNs which incorporate efficient utilization of limited resources of sensor nodes. In this paper a cluster-head election technique is implemented that optimizes network lifetime with reduced energy consumption. LEACH and LEACH-C are the popular clustering protocol and they provide energy efficient routing. As these protocols are defacto standard for clustering techniques the focus has been on optimizing LEACH-C protocol to achieve better network lifetime energy consumption. Several optimizations were implemented for LEACH-C protocol which includes a different clusterhead selection technique than LEACH-C. It selects optimal number of clusterheads in each round and also forms better clusters. Hence it consumes less energy and enhances network lifetime.