An energy aware fuzzy unequal clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks

In order to gather information more efficiently, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are partitioned into clusters. The most of the proposed clustering algorithms do not consider the location of the base station. This situation causes hot spots problem in multi-hop WSNs. Unequal clustering mechanisms, which are designed by considering the base station location, solve this problem. In this paper, we introduce a fuzzy unequal clustering algorithm (EAUCF) which aims to prolong the lifetime of WSNs. EAUCF adjusts the cluster-head radius considering the residual energy and the distance to the base station parameters of the sensor nodes. This helps decreasing the intra-cluster work of the sensor nodes which are closer to the base station or have lower battery level. We utilize fuzzy logic for handling the uncertainties in cluster-head radius estimation. We compare our algorithm with some popular algorithms in literature, namely LEACH, CHEF and EEUC, according to First Node Dies (FND), Half of the Nodes Alive (HNA) and energy-efficiency metrics. Our simulation results show that EAUCF performs better than the other algorithms in most of the cases. Therefore, EAUCF is a stable and energy-efficient clustering algorithm to be utilized in any real time WSN application.