Energy saving to prolong the network life is an important design issue while developing a new routingprotocol for wireless sensor network. Clustering is a key technique for this and helps in maximizing thenetwork lifetime and scalability. Most of the routing and data dissemination protocols of WSN assume ahomogeneous network architecture, in which all sensors have the same capabilities in terms of batterypower, communication, sensing, storage, and processing. Recently, there has been an interest inheterogeneous sensor networks, especially for real deployments. This research paper has proposed a newenergy aware clustering protocol (EACP) for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. Heterogeneity isintroduced in EACP by using two types of nodes: normal and advanced. In EACP cluster heads for normalnodes are elected with the help of a probability scheme based on residual and average energy of thenormal nodes. This will ensure that only the high residual normal nodes can become the cluster head in around. Advanced nodes use a separate probability based scheme for cluster head election and they willfurther act as a gateway for normal cluster heads and transmit their data load to base station when theyare not doing the duty of a cluster head. Finally a sleep state is suggested for some sensor nodes duringcluster formation phase to save network energy. The performance of EACP is compared with SEP andsimulation result shows the better result for stability period, network life and energy saving than SEP.
展开▼
