A Review on the need of Clustering Techniques Used for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks have been implemented in various software to help gather and analyze data from the physical world. Wireless sensor networks are networks of multiple tiny sensors powered by low-energy batteries (WSNs). WSN lifetime is a critical factor. This is because, after WSNs have been deployed in a given application, the inaccessibility of the sensing nodes makes it impossible to recharge or replace the power source that is limited in energy. Until recently, WSNs were thought to be the same. All the network nodes have the same power, processing speed, and operational capacity. However, scientists have developed heterogeneous WSNs, in which the properties of individual nodes may vary, to extend the lifespan of networks. In order to extend a network's helpful life, energy-efficient protocols must be designed. Even though WSN has its own problems, it has brought a fresh perspective to studying real-time intelligent systems. WSN (Wireless Sensor Network) has gained significant popularity in the recent years, owing to its vast applications in real-time scenarios, such as disaster management, pollution monitoring, temperature monitoring, traffic monitoring, transport monitoring, healthcare monitoring, battlefield monitoring, and border security surveillance, to name a few. Numerous sensor nodes are employed in these applications. They are typically placed in the sensing field, where they automatically transfer data to the base station (BS) through energy transmission (i.e., battery in the sensor). In WSN, clustering is one method for optimizing power consumption at the sensor node. The sensor nodes are grouped and given a leader when they undergo clustering. This study overviews various WSN clustering algorithms, each categorized according to various clustering properties.