An unequal cluster-based routing scheme for multi-level heterogeneous wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), clustering can significantly reduce energy dissipation of nodes, and also increase communication load of cluster heads. When multi-hop communication model is adopted in clustering, “energy hole” problem may occur due to unbalanced energy consumption among cluster heads. Recently, many multi-hop clustering protocols have been proposed to solve this problem. And the main way is using unequal clustering to control the size of clusters. However, many of these protocols are about homogeneous networks and few are about heterogeneous networks. In this paper, we present an unequal cluster-based routing scheme for WSNs with multi-level energy heterogeneity called UCR-H. The sensor field is partitioned into a number of equal-size rectangular units. We first calculate the number of clusters in each unit by balancing energy consumption among the cluster heads in different units. And then we find the optimal number of units by minimizing the total energy consumption of inter-cluster forwarding. Finally, the size of clusters in each unit is elaborately designed based on node’s energy level and the number of clusters in this unit. And a threshold is also designed to avoid excessive punishment to the nodes with higher energy level. Simulation results show that our scheme effectively mitigates the “energy hole” problem and achieves an obvious improvement on the network lifetime.     

Energy-Efficient Routing Algorithm Based on Unequal Clustering and Connected Graph in Wireless Sensor Networks

Clustering and multi-hop routing algorithms substantially prolong the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, they also result in the energy hole and network partition problems. In order to balance the load between multiple cluster heads, save the energy consumption of the inter-cluster routing, in this paper, we propose an energy-efficient routing algorithm based on Unequal Clustering Theory and Connected Graph Theory for WSN. The new algorithm optimizes and innovates in two aspects: cluster head election and clusters routing. In cluster head election, we take into consideration the vote-based measure and the transmission power of sensor nodes when to sectionalize these nodes into different unequal clusters. Then we introduce the connected graph theory for inter-cluster data communication in clusters routing. Eventually, a connected graph is constituted by the based station and all cluster heads. Simulation results show that, this new algorithm balances the energy consumption among sensor nodes, relieves the influence of energy-hole problem, improve the link quality, achieves a substantial improvement on reliability and efficiency of data transmission, and significantly prolongs the network lifetime.     

Energy Efficient Cluster Based Routing Protocol for WSN Using Firefly Algorithm and Ant Colony Optimization

Maximizing network lifetime is the main goal of designing a wireless sensor network. Clustering and routing can effectively balance network energy consumption and prolong network lifetime. This paper presents a novel cluster-based routing protocol called EECRAIFA. In order to select the optimal cluster heads, Self-Organizing Map neural network is used to perform preliminary clustering on the network nodes, and then the relative reasonable level of the cluster, the cluster head energy, the average distance within the cluster and other factors are introduced into the firefly algorithm (FA) to optimize the network clustering. In addition, the concept of decision domain is introduced into the FA to further disperse cluster heads and form reasonable clusters. In the inter-cluster routing stage, the inter-cluster routing is established by an improved ant colony optimization (ACO). Considering factors such as the angle, distance and energy of the node, the heuristic function is improved to make the selection of the next hop more targeted. In addition, the coefficient of variation in statistics is introduced into the process of updating pheromones, and the path is optimized by combining energy and distance. In order to further improve the network throughput, a polling control mechanism based on busy/idle nodes is introduced during the intra-cluster communication phase. The simulation experiment results prove that under different application scenarios, EECRAIFA can effectively balance the network energy consumption, extend the network lifetime, and improve network throughput.

     

Multi-factor and Distributed Clustering Routing Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks

One of important issues in wireless sensor networks is how to effectively use the limited node energy to prolong the lifetime of the networks. Clustering is a promising approach in wireless sensor networks, which can increase the network lifetime and scalability. However, in existing clustering algorithms, too heavy burden of cluster heads may lead to rapid death of the sensor nodes. The location of function nodes and the number of the neighbor nodes are also not carefully considered during clustering. In this paper, a multi-factor and distributed clustering routing protocol MFDCRP based on communication nodes is proposed by combining cluster-based routing protocol and multi-hop transmission. Communication nodes are introduced to relay the multi-hop transmission and elect cluster heads in order to ease the overload of cluster heads. The protocol optimizes the election of cluster nodes by combining various factors such as the residual energy of nodes, the distance between cluster heads and the base station, and the number of the neighbor nodes. The local optimal path construction algorithm for multi-hop transmission is also improved. Simulation results show that MFDCRP can effectively save the energy of sensor nodes, balance the network energy distribution, and greatly prolong the network lifetime, compared with the existing protocols.     

Low-Energy Adaptive Unequal Clustering Protocol Using Fuzzy c-Means in Wireless Sensor Networks

Clustering technique in wireless sensor networks incorporate proper utilization of the limited energy resources of the deployed sensor nodes with the highest residual energy that can be used to gather data and send the information. However, the problem of unbalanced energy consumption exists in a particular cluster node in the network. Some more powerful nodes act as cluster head to control sensor network operation when the network is organized into heterogeneous clusters. It is important to assume that energy consumption of these cluster head nodes is balanced. Often the network is organized into clusters of equal size where cluster head nodes bear unequal loads. Instead in this paper, we proposed a new protocol low-energy adaptive unequal clustering protocol using Fuzzy c-means in wireless sensor networks (LAUCF), an unequal clustering size model for the organization of network based on Fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering algorithm, which can lead to more uniform energy dissipation among the cluster head nodes, thus increasing network lifetime. A heuristic comparison between our proposed protocol LAUCF and other different energy-aware protocol including low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) has been carried out. Simulation result shows that our proposed heterogeneous clustering approach using FCM protocol is more effective in prolonging the network lifetime compared with LEACH and other protocol for long run.     

一种负载均衡且能量高效的水下传感网络分簇协议

针对水下无线传感网络能量效率低、生命周期短的问题,提出了一种负载均衡且能量高效的水下分簇（load balanced and energy efficient underwater clustering,LBEEUC）协议。该算法在分簇过程中首先根据节点的经验负载来确定节点所在区域簇头的比例,使经验负载大的区域分布较多的簇头,分担数据转发的任务,均衡网络的能耗;其次在节点入簇时,在簇内设置中继节点,用于均衡远离簇头节点的传输能耗,并提前进行数据融合,减少数据冗余;最后在建立簇间路由时,利用Q 学习算法根据路径消耗的总能量最小的原则选择最优传输路径。仿真结果表明,本算法有效地均衡了网络的能耗,提高了能量利用效率,进而提高了网络的生存时间。     

Fuzzy-based unequal clustering protocol for underwater wireless sensor networks

Underwater wireless sensor network (UWSN) is a network made up of underwater sensor nodes, anchor nodes, surface sink nodes or surface stations, and the offshore sink node. Energy consumption, limited bandwidth, propagation delay, high bit error rate, stability, scalability, and network lifetime are the key challenges related to underwater wireless sensor networks. Clustering is used to mitigate these issues. In this work, fuzzy-based unequal clustering protocol (FBUCP) is proposed that does cluster head selection using fuzzy logic as it can deal with the uncertainties of the harsh atmosphere in the water. Cluster heads are selected using linguistic input variables like distance to the surface sink node, residual energy, and node density and linguistic output variables like cluster head advertisement radius and rank of underwater sensor nodes. Unequal clustering is used to have an unequal size of the cluster which deals with the problem of excess energy usage of the underwater sensor nodes near the surface sink node, called the hot spot problem. Data gathered by the cluster heads are transmitted to the surface sink node using neighboring cluster heads in the direction of the surface sink node. Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm is used for multi-hop and inter-cluster routing. The FBUCP is compared with the LEACH-UWSN, CDBR, and FBCA protocols for underwater wireless sensor networks. A comparative analysis shows that in first node dies, the FBUCP is up to 80% better, has 64.86% more network lifetime, has 91% more number of packets transmitted to the surface sink node, and is up to 58.81% more energy efficient than LEACH-UWSN, CDBR, and FBCA.     

A Sink-Oriented Layered Clustering Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Clustering is an effective technique to prolong network lifetime for energy-constrained wireless sensor networks. Due to the many-to-one traffic pattern in a multi-hop network, the nodes closer to the sink also help to relay data for those farther away from the sink, and hence they consume much more energy and tend to die faster. This paper proposes a sink-oriented layered clustering (SOLC) protocol to better balance energy consumption among nodes with different distances to the sink. In SOLC, the sensor field is divided into concentric rings, and the SOLC protocol consists of intra-ring clustering and inter-ring routing. We compute the optimal ring width and the numbers of cluster heads in different rings to balance energy consumption between intra-cluster data processing and inter-cluster data relaying. Cluster heads in a ring closer to the sink has smaller sizes than those in the rings farther away from the sink, and hence they can spend less energy for intra-cluster data processing and more energy for inter-cluster data relay. Simulation results show that the SOLC protocol can outperform several existing clustering protocols in terms of improved network lifetime.     

An efficient cluster-based communication protocol for wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network is a network of large numbers of sensor nodes, where each sensor node is a tiny device that is equipped with a processing, sensing subsystem and a communication subsystem. The critical issue in wireless sensor networks is how to gather sensed data in an energy-efficient way, so that the network lifetime can be extended. The design of protocols for such wireless sensor networks has to be energy-aware in order to extend the lifetime of the network because it is difficult to recharge sensor node batteries. We propose a protocol to form clusters, select cluster heads, select cluster senders and determine appropriate routings in order to reduce overall energy consumption and enhance the network lifetime. Our clustering protocol is called an Efficient Cluster-Based Communication Protocol (ECOMP) for Wireless Sensor Networks. In ECOMP, each sensor node consumes a small amount of transmitting energy in order to reach the neighbour sensor node in the bidirectional ring, and the cluster heads do not need to receive any sensed data from member nodes. The simulation results show that ECOMP significantly minimises energy consumption of sensor nodes and extends the network lifetime, compared with existing clustering protocol.     

An intelligent and knowledge‐based overlapping clustering protocol for wireless sensor networks

Overlapping is one of the topics in wireless sensor networks that is considered by researchers in the last decades. An appropriate overlapping management system can prolong network lifetime and decrease network recovery time. This paper proposes an intelligent and knowledge‐based overlapping clustering protocol for wireless sensor networks, called IKOCP. This protocol uses some of the intelligent and knowledge‐based systems to construct a robust overlapping strategy for sensor networks. The overall network is partitioned to several regions by a proposed multicriteria decision‐making controller to monitor both small‐scale and large‐scale areas. Each region is managed by a sink, where the whole network is managed by a base station. The sensor nodes are categorized by various clusters using the low‐energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH)‐improved protocol in a way that the value of p is defined by a proposed support vector machine–based mechanism. A proposed fuzzy system determines that noncluster heads associate with several clusters in order to manage overlapping conditions over the network. Cluster heads are changed into clusters in a period by a suggested utility function. Since network lifetime should be prolonged and network traffic should be alleviated, a data aggregation mechanism is proposed to transmit only crucial data packets from cluster heads to sinks. Cluster heads apply a weighted criteria matrix to perform an inner‐cluster routing for transmitting data packets to sinks. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol surpasses the existing methods in terms of the number of alive nodes, network lifetime, average time to recover, dead time of first node, and dead time of last node.     

Dual head static clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks

Clustering of nodes is often used in wireless sensor networks to achieve data aggregation and reduce the number of nodes transmitting the data to the sink. This paper proposes a novel dual head static clustering algorithm (DHSCA) to equalise energy consumption by the sensor nodes and increase the wireless sensor network lifetime. Nodes are divided into static clusters based on their location to avoid the overhead of cluster re-formation in dynamic clustering. Two nodes in each cluster, selected on the basis of the their residual energy and their distance from the sink and other nodes in the cluster, are designated as cluster heads, one for data aggregation and the other for data transmission. This reduces energy consumption during intra-cluster and inter-cluster communication. A multi-hop technique avoiding the hot-spot problem is used to transmit the data to the sink. Experiments to observe the energy consumption patterns of the nodes and the fraction of packets successfully delivered using the DHSCA suggest improvements in energy consumption equalisation, which, in turn, enhances the lifetime of the network. The algorithm is shown to outperform all the other static clustering algorithms, while being comparable with the performance of the best dynamic algorithm.     

无线传感网络中基于蚁群的路由算法

In the wireless sensor networks, high efficient data routing for the limited energy resource networks is an important issue. By introducing Ant-colony algorithm, this paper proposes the wireless sensor network routing algorithm based on LEACH. During the construction of sensor network clusters, to avoid the node premature death because of the energy consumption, only the nodes whose residual energy is higher than the average energy can be chosen as the cluster heads. The method of repeated division is used to divide the clusters in sensor networks so that the numbers of the nodes in each cluster are balanced. The basic thought of ant-colony algorithm is adopted to realize the data routing between the cluster heads and sink nodes, and the maintenance of routing. The analysis and simulation showed that the proposed routing protocol not only can reduce the energy consumption, balance the energy consumption between nodes, but also prolong the network lifetime.     

FUCA: Fuzzy‐based unequal clustering algorithm to prolong the lifetime of wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor network comprises billions of nodes that work collaboratively, gather data, and transmit to the sink. “Energy hole” or “hotspot” problem is a phenomenon in which nodes near to the sink die prematurely, which causes the network partition. This is because of the imbalance of the consumption of energy by the nodes in wireless sensor networks. This decreases the network's lifetime. Unequal clustering is a technique to cope up with this issue. In this paper, an algorithm, “fuzzy‐based unequal clustering algorithm,” is proposed to prolong the lifetime of the network. This protocol forms unequal clusters. This is to balance the energy consumption. Cluster head selection is done through fuzzy logic approach. Input variables are the distance to base station, residual energy, and density. Competition radius and rank are the two output fuzzy variables. Mamdani method is employed for fuzzy inference. The protocol is compared with well‐known algorithms, like low‐energy adaptive clustering hierarchy, energy‐aware unequal clustering fuzzy, multi‐objective fuzzy clustering algorithm, and fuzzy‐based unequal clustering under different network scenarios. In all the scenarios, the proposed protocol performs better. It extends the lifetime of the network as compared with its counterparts.     

Unequal clustering algorithm for WSN based on fuzzy logic and improved ACO

This paper proposes a novel energy efficient unequal clustering algorithm for large scale wireless sensor network(WSN) which aims to balance the node power consumption and prolong the network lifetime as long as possible.Our approach focuses on energy efficient unequal clustering scheme and inter-cluster routing protocol.On the one hand,considering each node’s local information such as energy level,distance to base station and local density,we use fuzzy logic system to determine one node’s chance of becoming cluster head and estimate the corresponding competence radius.On the other hand,adaptive max-min ant colony optimization is used to construct energy-aware inter-cluster routing between cluster heads and base station(BS),which balances the energy consumption of cluster heads and alleviates the hot spots problem that occurs in multi-hop WSN routing protocol to a large extent.The confirmation experiment results have indicated the proposed clustering algorithm has more superior performance than other methods such as low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy(LEACH) and energy efficient unequal clustering(EEUC).     

An Improved Fuzzy Unequal Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Network

This paper introduces IFUC, which is an Improved Fuzzy Unequal Clustering scheme for large scale wireless sensor networks (WSNs).It aims to balance the energy consumption and prolong the network lifetime. Our approach focuses on energy efficient clustering scheme and inter-cluster routing protocol. On the one hand, considering each node’s local information such as energy level, distance to base station and local density, we use fuzzy logic system to determine each node’s chance of becoming cluster head and estimate the cluster head competence radius. On the other hand, we use Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) method to construct the energy-aware routing between cluster heads and base station. It reduces and balances the energy consumption of cluster heads and solves the hot spots problem that occurs in multi-hop WSN routing protocol to a large extent. The validation experiment results have indicated that the proposed clustering scheme performs much better than many other methods such as LEACH, CHEF and EEUC.     

An Energy Efficient Scalable Clustering Protocol for Dynamic Wireless Sensor Networks

The issue of energy constraint has always been a challenging task in the research field of wireless sensor networks. Clustering is the most effective approach for enhancing the performance of wireless sensor networks to a great extent in terms of energy consumption, network lifetime and throughput. However, the uneven formation of clusters can lead to faster energy depletion of few nodes, and thus results in premature failure of the wireless sensor network. This paper proposes an energy-efficient scalable clustering protocol (EESCP) which considers inter-cluster and intra-cluster distances to generate balanced clusters. A novel Dragonfly algorithm based particle swarm optimization technique is proposed to optimize the selection of cluster heads. Further, extensive simulations have been carried out by varying node densities and network sizes to demonstrate the full potential of EESCP.

     

An unequal cluster-based routing protocol in wireless sensor networks

Clustering provides an effective method for prolonging the lifetime of a wireless sensor network. Current clustering algorithms usually utilize two techniques; selecting cluster heads with more residual energy, and rotating cluster heads periodically to distribute the energy consumption among nodes in each cluster and extend the network lifetime. However, they rarely consider the hot spot problem in multihop sensor networks. When cluster heads cooperate with each other to forward their data to the base station, the cluster heads closer to the base station are burdened with heavier relay traffic and tend to die much faster, leaving areas of the network uncovered and causing network partitions. To mitigate the hot spot problem, we propose an Unequal Cluster-based Routing (UCR) protocol. It groups the nodes into clusters of unequal sizes. Cluster heads closer to the base station have smaller cluster sizes than those farther from the base station, thus they can preserve some energy for the inter-cluster data forwarding. A greedy geographic and energy-aware routing protocol is designed for the inter-cluster communication, which considers the tradeoff between the energy cost of relay paths and the residual energy of relay nodes. Simulation results show that UCR mitigates the hot spot problem and achieves an obvious improvement on the network lifetime. Guihai Chen obtained his B.S. degree from Nanjing University, M. Engineering from Southeast University, and PhD from University of Hong Kong. He visited Kyushu Institute of Technology, Japan in 1998 as a research fellow, and University of Queensland, Australia in 2000 as a visiting professor. During September 2001 to August 2003, he was a visiting professor at Wayne State University. He is now a full professor and deputy chair of Department of Computer Science, Nanjing University. Prof. Chen has published more than 100 papers in peer-reviewed journals and refereed conference proceedings in the areas of wireless sensor networks, high-performance computer architecture, peer-to-peer computing and performance evaluation. He has also served on technical program committees of numerous international conferences. He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society. Chengfa Li was born 1981 and obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in mathematics in 2003 and his Masters Degree in computer science in 2006, both from Nanjing University, China. He is now a system programmer at Lucent Technologies Nanjing Telecommunication Corporation. His research interests include wireless ad hoc and sensor networks. Mao Ye was born in 1981 and obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in computer science from Nanjing University, China, in 2004. He served as a research assistant At City University of Hong Kong from September 2005 to August 2006. He is now a PhD candidate with research interests in wireless networks, mobile computing, and distributed systems. Jie Wu is a professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Florida Atlantic University. He has published more than 300 papers in various journal and conference proceedings. His research interests are in the areas of mobile computing, routing protocols, fault-tolerant computing, and interconnection networks. Dr. Wu serves as an associate editor for the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems and several other international journals. He served as an IEEE Computer Society Distinguished Visitor and is currently the chair of the IEEE Technical Committee on Distributed Processing (TCDP). He is a member of the ACM, a senior member of the IEEE, and a member of the IEEE Computer Society.     

基于改进LEACH的多簇头分簇路由算法

为了降低无线传感器网络(WSN)的能耗,延长网络的生存周期,提出一种多簇头双工作模式的分簇路由算法.算法对低功耗自适应集簇分层(LEACH)协议作了以下改进:采用多簇头双工作模式来分担单簇头的负荷,以解决单簇头因能耗较大而过早消亡的问题;选举簇头时充分考虑节点位置和节点剩余能量,并应用粒子群优化(PSO)算法优化簇头的选举,以均衡网络内各节点的能耗;建立簇与簇之间的数据传输路由,以减少簇间通信的能耗.仿真结果表明,算法有效降低了网络的能耗,延长了网络的生存周期.     

A boolean spider monkey optimization based energy efficient clustering approach for WSNs

Wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of densely distributed nodes that are deployed to observe and react to events within the sensor field. In WSNs, energy management and network lifetime optimization are major issues in the designing of cluster-based routing protocols. Clustering is an efficient data gathering technique that effectively reduces the energy consumption by organizing nodes into groups. However, in clustering protocols, cluster heads (CHs) bear additional load for coordinating various activities within the cluster. Improper selection of CHs causes increased energy consumption and also degrades the performance of WSN. Therefore, proper CH selection and their load balancing using efficient routing protocol is a critical aspect for long run operation of WSN. Clustering a network with proper load balancing is an NP-hard problem. To solve such problems having vast search area, optimization algorithm is the preeminent possible solution. Spider monkey optimization (SMO) is a relatively new nature inspired evolutionary algorithm based on the foraging behaviour of spider monkeys. It has proved its worth for benchmark functions optimization and antenna design problems. In this paper, SMO based threshold-sensitive energy-efficient clustering protocol is proposed to prolong network lifetime with an intend to extend the stability period of the network. Dual-hop communication between CHs and BS is utilized to achieve load balancing of distant CHs and energy minimization. The results demonstrate that the proposed protocol significantly outperforms existing protocols in terms of energy consumption, system lifetime and stability period.     

A Centralized Balance Clustering Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network

Routing protocol plays a role of great importance in the performance of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A centralized balance clustering routing protocol based on location is proposed for WSN with random distribution in this paper. In order to keep clustering balanced through the whole lifetime of the network and adapt to the non-uniform distribution of sensor nodes, we design a systemic algorithm for clustering. First, the algorithm determines the cluster number according to condition of the network, and adjusts the hexagonal clustering results to balance the number of nodes of each cluster. Second, it selects cluster heads in each cluster base on the energy and distribution of nodes, and optimizes the clustering results to minimize energy consumption. Finally, it allocates suitable time slots for transmission to avoid collision. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol can balance the energy consumption and improve the network throughput and lifetime significantly.