The Steady Clustering Scheme for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

To reduce energy consumption is an important topic in WSN (wireless sensor networks). One of the popular protocols for energy-efficient WSN is called LEACH (low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy) which is a clustering algorithm designed for homogeneous WSN. Since LEACH selects the cluster heads based on probability, the real and expectance number of cluster heads may be different. However, LEACH is not suitable for heterogeneous WSN because the low-energy nodes can be cluster heads and die quickly. To operate under heterogeneous WSN, several methods are proposed such as SEP (stable election protocol) and DEEC (distributed energy-efficient clustering). In this paper, we propose a scheme for multi-level heterogeneous WSN. The proposed method is based on the SGCH (steady group clustering hierarchy). In the proposed method, all nodes are divided into several groups by the initial energy that extends the battery life time and fits for multi-level heterogeneous WSN. Simulations are used to compare the proposed method with previous technologies. We show that the proposed method prolongs the period of stability.