Centralized and Distributed Clustering Methods for Energy Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks

The wireless sensor network (WSN) technology is a key component for ubiquitous com- puting. In order to achieve the long term operation of WSNs, communication protocols based on clustering have been extensively studied such as LEACH, ACE and HEED. In this paper, we propose two types of clustering methods for WSNs. The first type, which is based on centralized management, employs vector quantization (VQ) for effective clustering. The second type, which is performed in a distributed distributed fashion, takes into account remaining battery level and node density. The proposed methods are com- pared with conventional methods LEACH, HEED and ANTCLUST. The effectiveness of the proposed meth- ods are demonstrated by numerical simulation.