On mitigating hot spots for clustering mechanisms in wireless sensor networks

A major issue in the design of wireless sensor networks for critical data applications is the presence of hot spots, due to the uneven consumption of energy among the sensors. In this paper we propose and evaluate a novel design which aims to create proper sized hot spots integrated with a clustering mechanism, thereby maximizing the network lifetime. We determine analytically the optimal size of the hot spot and as well as the number of clusters. Simulation results verify that our proposed design achieves our objectives.