Energy-Balanced Cluster Range Control algorithm for Wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are a useful method to monitor events in atrocious condition environment. Since the sensor nodes usually use battery with limited amount as power supply, prolong lifetime of network is one of the most important challenges in designing and deploying WSNs. Using cluster-based techniques to group nodes into clusters can reduce energy consumption efficiently, prolong network lifetime, and improve scalability. In cluster-based multi-hop communication scenario, the closer a cluster head is to the sink, the more energy it depletes for relaying data from the clusters far from the sink. In order to balance the energy consumed among clusters in network, we propose a new algorithm of controlling cluster size named Energy-Balanced Cluster Range Control algorithm (ECRC). Based on volume of relaying data and quantity of member nodes a cluster has, the algorithm achieves the goal of prolonging network lifetime by using geometric programming method to determine the optimal number of member nodes in clusters. Comparing with other cluster range control methods, the experimental performance evaluation demonstrates this algorithm has better performance in terms of energy consumption, lifetime, and less volume of relaying data.