Energy Efficient Unequal Clustering Algorithm with Disjoint Multi-hop Routing Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract—The main aim of this paper is to avoid hot-spot problem in wireless sensor network with uniform energy dissipation among cluster heads in the network. It proposes an energy efficient unequal clustering mechanism to form limited and equivalent number of clusters across different levels of wireless sensor network to enable invariable energy consumption among them. Concentrated cluster formation near base station ensures minimum relay burden on cluster heads to avoid hot-spot problem in multi-hop data forwarding model. Equivalent number of clusters at each level ensures in-common network load on each cluster head among different data forwarding routes. In addition, a simple disjoint multi-hop routing technique is proposed for smooth data forwarding process. Simulation results evidence that the proposed unequal clustering algorithm overcomes hot-spot problem with invariable energy dissipation among cluster heads across the network and elevates sensor network lifetime