Security Aware Cluster Head Selection with Coverage and Energy Optimization in WSNs for IoT

Nodes in wireless Internet of Things (IoT) sensor networks are heterogeneous in nature. This heterogeneity can come from energy and security resources available at the node level. Besides, these resources are usually limited. Efficient cluster head (CH) selection in rounds is the key to preserving energy resources of sensor nodes. However, energy and security resources are contradictory to one another. Therefore, it is challenging to ensure CH selection with appropriate security resources without decreasing energy efficiency. Coverage and energy optimization subject to a required security level can form a solution to the aforementioned trade-off. This paper proposes a security level aware CH selection algorithm in wireless sensor networks for IoT. The proposed method considers energy and security level updates for nodes and coverage provided by associated CHs. The proposed method performs CH selection in rounds and in a centralized parallel processing way, making it applicable to the IoT scenario. The proposed algorithm is compared to existing traditional and emerging CH selection algorithms that apply security mechanisms in terms of energy and security efficiencies.