An unequal clustering algorithm based on virtual blocks for wireless sensor networks

In order to improve energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks (WSNs), an unequal clustering algorithm based on virtual blocks (VBUC) is proposed. Firstly, the monitoring area is divided into several virtual blocks (VBs) in VBUC. According to the principle of energy minimization, the optimal number of cluster heads (CHs) is calculated to control the number and the size of the VB. Secondly, the residual energy of node, the network average residual energy and the communication cost in VB are used to select CHs, which can reduce the energy consumption of the whole network. Thirdly, in the CHs routing establishment phase, the base station (BS) is considered as a candidate CH. Each CH selects a CH as its parent node which has less layer serial number than its child node and has the least communication cost among candidate CHs. The simulation results prove the good performance of VBUC in large area WSN scenarios.