VCH-ECCR: A Centralized Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

A wireless sensor network (WSN) is a collection of hundreds to thousands of compact, battery-operated sensors. It is deployed to accumulate useful information from the nearby environment. Depending upon the type of application, the sensors have to work for months to years with a finite energy source. In some extreme environments, the replacement of energy source is challenging and sometimes not feasible. Therefore, it is vital for sensors to perform their duties in an energy efficient way to improve the longevity of the network. This paper proposes an energy-efficient centralized cluster-based routing protocol called Vice-Cluster-Head-Enabled Centralized Cluster-based Routing protocol (VCH-ECCR). The VCH-ECCR uses a two-level hierarchy of vice cluster heads to use the energy of sensors efficiently and to cut back the frequency of the clustering. The performance of VCH-ECCR is compared with low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH), LEACH-Centralized (LEACH-C), and base station controlled dynamic clustering protocol (BCDCP). The experimental results show that the VCH-ECCR outperforms over its comparative in terms of network lifetime, overall energy consumption, and throughput