Leader selection in wireless sensor networks — An energy efficient approach

Wireless Sensor Networks have found its application in numerous domains. Limited energy of the sensor nodes is the main constraint in operation of the network. Several energy efficient routing protocols have been proposed to deal with this problem. In this paper we propose a leader selection algorithm for these routing protocols to enhance the network lifetime to a greater extent. Distance of the node from base station, degree of connectivity of the node and trust level of the node is individually analyzed and is linearly combined with weights associated with each parameter. This gives the overall potential function of a node to become a leader. The number of rounds after which leader selection takes place is also equated. Through simulation the algorithm is compared with traditional energy-distance based method for routing protocols LBEERA, OREC, PEGASIS and SHORT. Significant improvement of network lifetime is obtained using this leader selection algorithm. Highest improvement of more than 8% increase in network lifetime is observed when distance of the node from the base station is given a higher linear combination weight.