An improved K-means cluster-based routing scheme for wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), clustering routing schemes have been widely used to reduce energy consumption. In this context, the key point in such topology is how to generate clusters and select cluster-heads to improve network performance. One of solutions is to select cluster-heads alternately because the latter consume more energy due to some extra load for various activities such as data collection, data aggregation, and communication of the aggregated data to the base station. However, most of the cluster-based solutions proposed in the literature do not take into account the generation of balanced clusters with cluster-heads having more residual energy and closer to the members of their corresponding clusters. In this paper, we propose two cluster-based routing schemes. The first is based on K-means approach and the second is an improved version of K-means approach. The latter generates balanced clusters, which allows to distribute the load equitably among the cluster-heads. Simulation results show that the proposed routing schemes balance the energy consumption among the cluster-heads, and significantly improves the network lifetime compared to LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) protocol.