An efficient cluster-based communication protocol for wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network is a network of large numbers of sensor nodes, where each sensor node is a tiny device that is equipped with a processing, sensing subsystem and a communication subsystem. The critical issue in wireless sensor networks is how to gather sensed data in an energy-efficient way, so that the network lifetime can be extended. The design of protocols for such wireless sensor networks has to be energy-aware in order to extend the lifetime of the network because it is difficult to recharge sensor node batteries. We propose a protocol to form clusters, select cluster heads, select cluster senders and determine appropriate routings in order to reduce overall energy consumption and enhance the network lifetime. Our clustering protocol is called an Efficient Cluster-Based Communication Protocol (ECOMP) for Wireless Sensor Networks. In ECOMP, each sensor node consumes a small amount of transmitting energy in order to reach the neighbour sensor node in the bidirectional ring, and the cluster heads do not need to receive any sensed data from member nodes. The simulation results show that ECOMP significantly minimises energy consumption of sensor nodes and extends the network lifetime, compared with existing clustering protocol.