Low-energy dynamic clustering scheme for multi-layer wireless sensor networks

Abstract It is inconvenient to replace the sensor nodes with limited energy in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) when they are deployed in remote or dangerous monitoring area, that makes energy consumption become the main issue to limit wide application of WSNs. Existing clustering methods only consider heterogeneity of node energy for head selection, irrespective of differences in network structure and node density. Fuzzy logic scheme is applied in this paper to consider multiple factors clustering with the purpose of prolonging network lifetime. In addition to the initial energy, the relative density of nodes and the relative distance between nodes and base station are considered to select the cluster head dynamically. Experimental results have demonstrated that the proposed dynamic clustering scheme can balance the energy consumption of the nodes in both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks, effectively prolong the lifetime of the network, maintain the accuracy of data aggregation.