Cluster head load balanced clustering routing protocol for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Aimed at the problem of unbalanced energy consumption of cluster heads caused by inter-cluster communications in wireless sensor networks clustering routing protocols, a novel algorithm named cluster head load balanced clustering (CHLBC) is presented. Based on uneven distributed cluster heads, CHLBC builds backbone network's inter-cluster transit route which is composed of cluster heads and calculates relay traffic of cluster heads. Sensors take the cluster head's relay traffic into consideration in the process of choosing the best cluster head and realize load balance of cluster heads. Simulation results show that the routing protocol effectively balances the load among cluster heads and achieves an obvious improvement on the network lifetime.