Multi-hop low energy fixed clustering algorithm (M-LEFCA) for WSNs

The limited battery supply of sensor nodes is one of the most important factors which restrict the lifetime of the wireless sensor networks (WSNs). As a consequence, the wide deployment of WSNs in the recent years led to the necessity of extending the lifetime through energy efficient mechanisms. Previous studies have shown that instead of implementing direct transmission in a WSN field to collect data, clustering can significantly improve the energy-efficiency and thus the lifetime. The traditional LEACH and LEACH based algorithms have evolved from this idea. In this paper, separating from the LEACH based algorithms, a fixed clustering and multi-hop routing algorithm for WSNs is proposed. The multi-hop low energy fixed clustering algorithm (M-LEFCA) selects the nearest forward neighbour CH node as a relay node to provide multi-hop routing between CHs instead of using direct transmission between CH nodes and the base station (BS). The simulation results indicate that, M-LEFCA further improves the lifetime and number of packets delivered to the BS, reduces the energy dissipation significantly.