Cluster-Head Selection Protocol for Improving the Network Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

Prolonged network operations are crucial for any Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) based applications such as health care, military, industrial, etc. The fixed energy and the restrained communication range of the sensor nodes (SNs) make it challenging to achieve a longer life of network operations. Generally, the data collection and direct message transmissions to the base station (BS) consume most of the SNs' energy resulting in a shorter network lifetime. Reduction in the energy expended on these data transmissions leads to an improvement in the WSNs' network lifetime. Clustering approaches are employed to mitigate this issue. The cluster head (CH) in each cluster collects the data from the SNs and forwards it to the BS. Proper CH node selection is vital in achieving enhanced network lifetime. Therefore, in this work, a new clustering technique is proposed that probabilistically selects the best CHs for each cluster by considering the residual energy of each SN. The suggested technique has been compared with the existing LEACH scheme and the experimental outcomes show the suggested technique has improved the network lifetime by an average of 8.32% and 14.23% in terms of the first and the last node dead respectively.