Dynamic coefficient-based cluster head election in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Owing to the fact that the selection of cluster heads has a significant effect on the lifetime of the network, many researches have proposed various cluster head election methodologies for cluster-based WSNs. Although recent studies have focused on adaptive approaches, in which different parameters are assembled under a function, the effect of these parameters on cluster head election is not investigated in detail. In this paper, initially, a small-scale dataset is constructed by evaluating the death of the first, the half and the last node in a cluster-based WSN using three popular cluster head parameters, including the remaining energy of the nodes, the intra-cluster communication cost and the number of neighbours. In consideration of the results, a dynamically changeable coefficient based adaptive cluster head election, DCoCH, is proposed. The coefficients of the cluster head election parameters show alteration within three different periods of the lifetime of the network. DCoCH is compared with two recent adaptive based cluster head election methodologies for various WSN parameters and the results show that DCoCH outperforms equivalent approaches for different values of the location of the base station, the size of the network, the number of the nodes, the initial batteries of the nodes and the distribution of the nodes.