Coverage-time optimized dynamic clustering of networked sensors for pervasive home networking

This paper proposes a novel energy-efficient coverage-time optimized dynamic clustering scheme for two- tiered wireless sensor networks (WSNs) used in an outdoor monitoring application of home networking systems. The coverage-time is defined as the time until one of cluster heads (CHs) runs out of energy in clustering-based WSNs, thereby resulting in an incomplete coverage. DC-CTO scheme regulates cluster radii for balanced energy consumption among CHs to maximize coverage-time. There are several advantages of using the DC-CTO scheme. The first advantage is balanced energy consumption among CHs under NLP- based computations. The second advantage is minimized energy consumption in each CH to extend coverage-time. The last one is the guarantee of perfect coverage. If there is no area which is uncontrolled by a CH in a networked sensing field, we call it a perfect coverage. If there is an incomplete coverage, the event in the area cannot be identified. Therefore perfect coverage is important to robust monitoring systems. The novelty of DC-CTO scheme is demonstrated by various simulation-based performance evaluations.