Genetic algorithm based clustering approach for wireless sensor network to optimize routing techniques

Since last decade, our eye witnessed proofs that Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been used in many areas like health care, agriculture, defense, military, disaster hit areas and so on. The key parameters that play a major role in designing a protocol for WSNs are its energy efficiency and computational feasibility, as sensor nodes are resource constrained. Variation in sensor nodes distance from base station and inter node distances primarily cause unequal energy consumption among the sensor nodes. The energy consumption varies with time and causes degradation of system performance. LEACH is the first ever clustered based routing protocol which provides elegant solutions, suffers from the drawback due to the randomized cluster head (CH) election. Assuming serious energy rebalancing with traditional clustering algorithm, a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based clustering algorithm which evaluates the fitness function by considering the two major parameters distance and energy has been proposed in this paper. GA is a probabilistic search based algorithm based on the principle of natural selection and evolution. Simulation result proofs that the proposed protocol performs better than LEACH protocol and enhances the network lifetime.