HLBC: A Hierarchical Layer-Balanced Clustering Scheme for Energy Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks

Battery lifetime maximization of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes has been an area of prime research interest, and clustering of WSN nodes for realizing the goal of network lifetime maximization has been extensively addressed in the literature. Various clustering schemes for partitioning WSN nodes into equal, unequal or random cluster sizes have been prevalent, each having their own set of pros and cons. This paper proposes a Hierarchical Layer-Balanced Clustering (HLBC) scheme that partitions the WSN into a number of hierarchical layers of varied sizes while maintaining equal sized clusters at every layer. The proposed HLBC architecture is presented along with the proposed Frame Forwarding Algorithm (FFA) and the proposed TDMA Schedule for eliminating the synchronization problem. Extensive simulation experiments have been carried out under varying network scenarios to assess the performance of the proposed scheme, and the results demonstrate its efficacy. In particular, the proposed HLBC was found to outperform state of the art approaches LEACH, UCR and EMUC by 77.71%, 54.23% and 27.93%, respectively, in terms of Network Lifetime.