Balancing Node Lifetimes for Prolonged Network Lifetime in Wireless Sensor Networks

摘要

In wireless sensor networks with inexpensive battery-powered sensors, clustering saves energy efficiently and is effectively used for many applications such as environment monitoring. In the recently developed COTS (Clustering with One-Time Setup), the cluster-reforming process is removed by allowing the role of cluster heads (CHs) to be rotated among members in a cluster after the initial setup at the first round, resulting in reduced energy consumption. However, in some clusters with a small number of living nodes, the nodes consume more energy and have shorter lifetimes because clusters are never reformed after the first round in COTS. This paper proposes a new clustering scheme called clustering with intermittent setup (CIS), which reforms clusters intermittently to balance the lifetimes of the nodes. In CIS, the role of CHs is rotated among members in a cluster during the time interval between two successive setups. By reforming clusters intermittently, clusters are not fixed, and energy consumption and lifetime are balanced among nodes, resulting in a prolonged network lifetime. According to a performance study, the lifetimes of nodes in CIS are well balanced, resulting in a prolonged network lifetime compared to conventional protocols.