Low energy fixed clustering algorithm (LEFCA) for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become an important part of our lives as they can be used in vast application areas from disaster relief to health care. As a consequence, the life span and the energy consumption of a WSN has become a challenging research area. According to the existing studies, instead of using direct transmission or multi-hop routing, clustering can significantly reduce the energy consumption of sensor nodes and can prolong the lifetime of a WSN. In this paper, we propose a low energy fixed clustering algorithm (LEFCA) for WSNs. With LEFCA, the clusters are constructed during the set-up phase. A sensor node which becomes a member of a cluster stays in the same cluster throughout the life span of the network. LEFCA not only improves the lifetime of the network, but also decreases the energy dissipation and increases the throughput significantly.