Effect of Unequal Clustering Algorithms in WirelessHART networks

The use of Graph Routing in Wireless Highway Addressable Remote Transducer (WirelessHART) networks offers the benefit of increased reliability of communications because of path redundancy and multi-hop network paths. Nonetheless, Graph Routing in a WirelessHART network creates a hotspot challenge resulting from unbalanced energy consumption. This paper proposes the use of unequal clustering algorithms based on Graph Routing in WirelessHART networks to help with balancing energy consumption, maximizing reliability, and reducing the number of hops in the network. Graph Routing is compared with pre-set and probabilistic unequal clustering algorithms in terms of energy consumption, packet delivery ratio, throughput and average end-to-end delay. A simulation test reveals that Graph Routing has improved energy consumption, throughput and reduced average end-to-end delay when conducted using probabilistic unequal clustering algorithms. However, there is no significant change in the packet delivery ratio, as most packets reach their destination successfully anyway.