Prolonging the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks via Prolonging the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks via

TLDR

Organizing wireless sensor networks into clusters efficiently uses limited energy, but unbalanced consumption tied to node role and location causes problems, especially when clusters are equal‑sized, leading to uneven load on cluster heads. The authors propose an unequal clustering size (UCS) model to achieve more uniform energy dissipation among cluster heads and extend network lifetime. The UCS model is implemented in both heterogeneous and homogeneous sensor networks, enabling more balanced energy use among cluster heads. Results indicate that UCS achieves more uniform energy dissipation in homogeneous networks, thereby extending network lifetime.

Abstract

Organizing wireless sensor networks into clusters enables the efficient utilization of the limited energy resources of the deployed sensor nodes. However, the problem of unbalanced energy consumption exists, and it is tightly bound to the role and to the location of a particular node in the network. If the network is organized into heterogeneous clusters, where some more powerful nodes take on the cluster head role to control network operation, it is important to ensure that energy dissipation of these cluster head nodes is balanced. Oftentimes the network is organized into clusters of equal size, but such equal clustering results in an unequal load on the cluster head nodes. Instead, we propose an unequal clustering size (UCS) model for network organization, which can lead to more uniform energy dissipation among the cluster head nodes, thus increasing network lifetime. Also, we expand this approach to homogeneous sensor networks and show that UCS can lead to more uniform energy dissipation in a homogeneous network as well.