A Non-Threshold-Based Cluster-Head Rotation Scheme for IEEE 802.15.4 Cluster-Tree Networks

The role of cluster-head in an IEEE 802.15.4 cluster-tree network is to aggregate data from various devices in the cluster and cumulatively transmit to the PANC. This is an energy efficient way of sending data compared to individual reporting of devices independently. Cluster-head coordinators expend more energy compared to other coordinators in the cluster as they have to remain active for longer duration and carry out tasks like aggregation and transmission. Therefore this role of a cluster-head has to be periodically rotated among different coordinators to prevent exhaustion of a particular coordinator's energy and to extend the overall network lifetime. Few of the works done in this direction consider the existence of single hop transmission link to the PANC. Majority of other works designed for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) base the cluster-head rotation decision on threshold of available residual-energy in a coordinator. In this paper, we present a non- threshold based cluster-head rotation scheme that makes a rotation decision based on network- lifetime. It considers the residual energy, transmission cost and aggregation cost from associated coordinators and end-devices in synchronized IEEE 802.15.4 cluster-tree networks. Through simulations, we show that the proposed mechanism extends the overall network lifetime, outperforming other approaches.