Clustering Based Routing for Wireless Sensor Networks in Smart Grid Environment

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is widely deployed in different fields of applications of smart grid to provide reliable monitoring and controlling of the electric power grid. The objective of this paper is simulate and analyze impact of various smart grid environments on performance of four different WSN routing protocols namely the Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) and Centralized LEACH (LEACT-C) as well as other two conventional protocols namely Minimum Transmission Energy (MTE) and Static Clustering. This analysis would be beneficial in making the correct choice of WSN routing protocols for various smart grid applications. The performance of the four protocols is simulated using NS-2 network simulation on Ubuntu. The results are analyzed and compared using number of data signals received at base station, energy consumption, and network lifetime as performance metrics. The results show that the performance of various protocols in the smart grid environments have deteriorated due log normal channel characteristics and consequently network lifetime have decreased significantly. The results also indicate that clustering based routing protocols have more advantageous over conventional protocols; MTE and static clustering. Also, centralized clustering approach is more effective as it distributes energy dissipation evenly throughout the sensor nodes which reduce energy consumption and prolong the networks’ lifetime. This approach is more effective in delivering data to base station because it has global knowledge of the location and energy of all the nodes in the network.