Energy Efficient Cluster Head Selection in Fixed Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy is the main bottleneck for wireless sensor networks and it has dominating effects on network lifetime. Sensors have finite energy and during the process of sensing and transmitting data to the cluster head they lose energy. Sensors that are furthest away from the cluster head require more energy than the closer ones. These losses of energy cause sensors to die faster, lower coverage area and hence network death. In this paper we investigate techniques to maximize the network lifetime by selecting the most optimal cluster head. The proposed technique is in context of cluster-based wireless sensor networks, the others being un-clustered sensor networks. The cluster head selection technique is based upon distance and node degree. The key idea of the scheme is to choose new cluster heads according to their distance and node degree toward the original cluster head location. The benefit of such a technique is to reduce the overall consumption of energy, thus increasing the network lifetime