TFD-assisted Threshold–sensitive Stable Election Protocol for WSNs

Energy efficiency is important in the case of devices which has strictly limited energy resources, such as battery powered sensors. Cluster wireless sensor networks enable the sensors within the cluster to select the most appropriate node at a given moment for long-distance transmission (Cluster Head) and use it to communicate with the base station. This paper proposes the use of the Traffic Flow Description option for the IP protocol to improve the selection of Cluster Heads. The simulation results showed that the benefits of using TFD-assisted selection of Cluster Heads outweigh the costs of having to transmit additional signaling information using the TFD option.