An Energy Efficient Head Node Selection For Load Balancing In A Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) are a type of network where different wireless sensors nodes are distributed in a given region for the collection and transmission of various types of information to other nodes or to a final destination. Such scenario is characterized by limited resources, which impacts the network lifetime and the reliable data propagation. This paper assumes a scenario of heterogeneous nodes clustered hierarchically according to their energy. The paper proposes a novel approach to maximize the WSN lifetime by combining energy-awareness and load-balancing in heterogeneous WSNs. We implement a stable election protocol (SEP)jointly with a load balancing protocol (LEACH) to enable even distribution of the load based on the energy capabilities of each node. Results are shown in terms of The performance has been shown in terms of number of transmitted packets and number of nodes staying alive after a given number of rounds.