An optimised fuzzy clustering for wireless sensor networks

Minimising energy consumption has always been an issue of crucial importance in sensor networks. Most of the energy is consumed in data transmission from sensor nodes to the base station due to the long distance of nodes from the base station. In the recent past, a number of researchers have proposed that clustering is an efficient way of reducing the energy consumption during data transmission and enhancing the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. Many algorithms have been already proposed for cluster head selection. In this work, we analyse and compare the lifetime of the network with three different fuzzy-based approaches of cluster head selection. The three strong parameters which play an important role in lifetime enhancement – energy, centrality and node density – are considered for cluster head selection in our proposed fuzzy approaches. In the first approach, energy and centrality are considered simultaneously in a fuzzy system to select the cluster heads. In the second approach, energy and node density have been taken in a fuzzy system to select the cluster heads. In the third approach, node density and centrality are considered simultaneously by a fuzzy system to select the cluster heads. Simulation results of these fuzzy logic-based approaches show that all the three approaches are superior to the Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH). Simulation results also show that the energy-centrality-based fuzzy clustering scheme gives best performance among all the three fuzzy-based algorithms and it enhances the lifetime of wireless sensor networks by a significant amount.