FMUCR: Fuzzy-based Multi-hop Unequal Cluster Routing for WSN

Recently, wireless sensor networks play an important role in our life. Cluster routing has gained more attention in wireless sensor networks. However, hotpot problem always exists. One way to solve this problem is the unequal cluster routing. In most of the unequal routing protocols, nodes which closer to base station have the smaller cluster size than others. It will reduce the relay pressure of the node which near to the base station. In this paper, we propose the fuzzy-based multi-hop unequal cluster routing. In the cluster head election phase, relative inter cluster cost and relative intra cluster cost are proposed innovatively. Fuzzy system is used for unequal clustering which reduces the energy consumption for cluster members. In the cluster formation phase, a novel probability mechanism is proposed to let the cluster members decide which cluster to join. In the multi-hop routing phase, relative relay cluster cost is proposed innovatively for inter cluster routing. Two factors are considered for multi-hop routing which reduces the energy consumption for cluster heads. Self-adaptive rotation mechanism is proposed in the data transmission phase. It reduces the frequency for re-clustering self-adaptively which reduces the control overhead of the entire network. According to the simulation results, the proposed protocol balances and reduces the energy consumption as well as extends the network lifetime of the whole network.