Energy-balanced clustering protocol for data gathering in wireless sensor networks with unbalanced traffic load

KUI Xiao-yan(奎晓燕), WANG Jian-xin(王建新), ZHANG Shi-geng(张士庚)

(School of Information Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China)

Abstract:Energy-efficient data gathering in multi-hop wireless sensor networks was studied, considering that different node produces different amounts of data in realistic environments. A novel dominating set based clustering protocol (DSCP) was proposed to solve the data gathering problem in this scenario. In DSCP, a node evaluates the potential lifetime of the network (from its local point of view) assuming that it acts as the cluster head, and claims to be a tentative cluster head if it maximizes the potential lifetime. When evaluating the potential lifetime of the network, a node considers not only its remaining energy, but also other factors including its traffic load, the number of its neighbors, and the traffic loads of its neighbors. A tentative cluster head becomes a final cluster head with a probability inversely proportional to the number of tentative cluster heads that cover its neighbors. The protocol can terminate in O(n/lg n) steps, and its total message complexity is O(n²/lg n). Simulation results show that DSCP can effectively prolong the lifetime of the network in multi-hop networks with unbalanced traffic load. Compared with EECT, the network lifetime is prolonged by 56.6% in average.

Key words:energy-balance; clustering; data gathering; wireless sensor networks; unbalanced traffic load