Level controlled clustering in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

Sensor networks can be used for various applications areas like health, military, environmental etc. For different application areas, there are different technical issues that researchers are currently resolving. This paper deals with a distributed sensor network employing level controlled clustering. Level controlled clustering is a technique that uses leveling and clustering together. This technique reduces the number of messages in the direction of base station and thereby increases the life time of the wireless sensor network. We divide the network into levels of different power levels. By using various power levels at base station, the sensor field is hierarchically partitioned into levels of increasing radius each level containing various sensor nodes. Leveling divides the network into logical zones based on proximity from base station, whereby the packet is transmitted from a node in the next zone with lesser depth. The transmission probability is fixed. The primary advantage of this protocol is transmitting a critical event and at the same time conserving life time of the network for future monitoring.