An optimized weight-based clustering algorithm in wireless sensor networks

Fountain codes are a type of erasure codes which are characterized by their global acknowledgement and used as a solution to reduce the use of feedback channel as well as the number of transmissions and then minimize the energy consumption. With the multi-hop transmission, fountain codes raise the problem of overflow leading to a waste of energy, the most critical issue and the big challenge in the WSN. Combining fountain codes and clustering technique aim to reduce the impact of this drawback. In this paper, an improved and adapted algorithm based on the weighted clustering algorithm is proposed with additional constraints for the election of cluster heads in wireless sensor networks. The principal goal of our algorithm is to minimize, balance the energy consumption among all nodes and reduce the impact of the fountain codes' drawback, the overflow. By comparing the proposed algorithm with LEACH, simulation results have shown its effectiveness in saving energy.