A Novel cluster-based routing protocol with extending lifetime for wireless sensor networks

Over the recent years, one of the most important problems in wireless sensor network is to develop a routing protocol that has energy efficiency. Since the power of the sensor nodes is limited, conserving energy and network life is a critical issue in wireless sensor network. In this paper, first we propose an ELCH (Extending Lifetime of Cluster Head) routing protocol that has self-configuration and hierarchal routing properties. It reforms the existing routing protocols in several aspects and constructs clusters on the basis of radio radius and the number of cluster members. In this method, the clusters in the network are equally distributed. We also suggest a novel clustering algorithm for sensor networks, which lets sensors vote for their neighbors in order to elect suitable cluster heads.