An energy-efficient protocol for wireless sensor networks

In the paper, we consider a network of energy-constrained sensors deployed over a region. Each sensor node in such a network is systematically gathering and transmission sensed data to a base station (via clusterhead) for further processing. A key challenge in data gathering is to maximize the system lifetime, given the energy constraints. We focus on reducing the power consumption of wireless sensor networks. The dominate component in energy consumption is almost always due to communication. Therefore, we heavily modify an existing communication protocol, Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH). We extend LEACH's stochastic clusterhead selection algorithm by a deterministic component to reduce energy consumption. Simulation results show that our modified scheme can extend the network life around 50% for First Node Dies (FND) and 62% for Last Nodes Dies (LND).