A robust clustering approach for extending the lifetime of wireless sensor networks in an optimized manner with a novel fitness function

Abstract The huge load on the cluster head (CH) nodes in the clustered Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is still a problem that causes premature death for those overloaded nodes. In this paper, we have practically proved that CH-load reduction has the largest effect on enhancing the energy efficiency of the clustering algorithms compared to some other energy efficiency- enhancing factors. So, this paper also proposes a model that divides the load of the CH role into small parts/values, in an optimized manner, and allocates these values to the whole nodes in the cluster. Therefore, using the Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) strategy, each member node in the cluster will transfer a specific amount of energy (equal to a part of the CH load that is assigned to the node) to the CH node which will also bear a suitable and a calculated part of the load instead of the whole load. So, the lifetime of the WSN is enhanced. Our simulation results show that our proposed model achieves high lifetime improvement over Leach and K-means clustering algorithms respectively.