Energy-aware optimization of the number of clusters and cluster-heads in WSN

Improving the network lifetime and saving energy are the performance measurement in designing any Wireless Sensor Network. Clustering the wireless sensor nodes and choosing leader nodes to aggregate the sending data are considered a main way of saving energy and increasing the network lifetime. Many researchers have worked on designing clustering protocols for the Wireless Sensor Network. However, few of the clustering algorithms have studied the numbers of clusters required in each network and the optimal cluster-heads in each cluster. Little of these clustering algorithms consider the energy level of the wireless sensor nodes to determine how many clusters are required in the network and which node should act as the optimal cluster-head of the cluster. In this paper, we have proposed a new technique to determine the number of clusters and choose the best node to be the cluster-heads in the Wireless Sensor Network based on the energy level of the wireless sensor nodes. We have compared this technique with the built-in cluster-tree technique in establishing the network and linking the nodes to each other in the latest sensor standard “ZigBee”. Based on the simulation results, the proposed clustering technique has increased the lifetime of the wireless sensor network by 50% in average comparing with the original lifetime of the cluster-tree network.