Non-dominated sorting based multi-objective clustering algorithm for WSN

In wireless sensor networks (WSN), energy efficiency is one of the major challenges because of the difficulty of charging nodes in monitored area. Clustering sensor nodes is an effective topology control method to reduce energy consumption of sensor nodes. Studies of clustering algorithm usually focus on the whole lifetime but ignore the stable time (the time at which the first node dies) in WSN. This study proposes a clustering algorithm which aims to improve the stability and extend the lifetime of the network simultaneously by balancing and reducing the energy consumption for each node in WSN. The proposed algorithm is based on an improved Non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) which is a multi-objective optimization algorithm to achieve several goals. Five objective functions are used to optimize energy consumption and load balance. In the improved NSGA-II, a weight value is adopted to evaluate the clustering solutions after the crowding distance to sort the individuals in every generation more reasonably. According to the simulation results, the proposed algorithm achieves longer stable period and longer lifetime than LEACH & clustering algorithm based on traditional NSGA-II.