Energy Aware Passive Clustering in Wireless Mobile Networks

Due to the limited capacity of the nodes´ batteries, energy is a critical resource in wireless mobile networks (e.g., wireless sensor networks: WSNs). Clustering is an effective approach to reduce total energy consumption; indeed, only cluster heads and gateways forward traffic. However, without proper distribution of energy consumption among the nodes, gains in total energy consumption do not necessarily translate to an increase of the network lifespan. In this paper, we propose novel heuristics that allow balancing energy consumption among the network nodes; these heuristics have been developed in combination with passive clustering due to its superior performance. Compared to existing approaches, the proposed heuristics (1) do not have stringent requirements, such as clock synchronization; and (2) do not generate extra control traffic to exchange energy information among the nodes. Furthermore, they can be easily used/adapted with other clustering protocols. The simulation results show that the heuristics considerably increase the network´s lifespan.