An Energy efficient Load Balancing Algorithm for cluster-based wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In a large-scale wireless sensor network, clustering sensor nodes around a few less-energy constrained gateways (also called cluster heads) has been considered as an effective means to achieve scalability and robustness of the networks. However, if some gateways are overburdened with a large number of sensor nodes, they can die quickly and as a result the network life time can be over within a short period of time. To prolong the lifetime of the network, therefore, it is imperative to balance the load of the gateways. It is also equally important to minimize average communication energy of the sensor nodes inside their clusters. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm called CELBA (Centralized Energy efficient Load Balancing Algorithm) for wireless sensor networks that not only balances the load of the gateways but also energy efficient communication of the sensor nodes in their clusters. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is more energy efficient and load balanced than the existing algorithms.