EECP-EI: energy-efficient clustering protocol based on energy intervals for wireless sensor networks

Wireless Sensor Network is comprised of sensor nodes with a limited energy supply in the form of built-in batteries. Efficient utilization of limited energy supply of sensor nodes is one of the key design issues in wireless sensor networks. Hence, energy efficiency needs to be enhanced to prolong the stability and lifetime of WSN. In this paper, we propose Energy-Efficient Clustering Protocol based on Energy Intervals (EECP-EI) for multi-level WSN. EECP-EI associates sensor nodes to clusters based on energy intervals. The cluster heads are selected based on average energy of certain energy interval and the total estimated energy of network at a particular round. The role of cluster head is rotated within the cluster to evenly distribute the energy among sensor nodes inside the cluster. The sensed data is aggregated at the cluster head to reduce the amount of data that needs to be communicated to the base station. The sensed data is communicated to the base station using hierarchy of cluster heads that are in ten-meter distance to the sending cluster head. When the cluster formation no longer remains optimal, every sensor node in the network transmits data directly to the base station. Simulations show that EECP-EI shows the improved stability period of 37.08%, 36.37%, and 19.39%, and the improved network lifetime of 6.58%, 13.13%, and 32.15% as compared to LEACH, DEEC, and DDEEC respectively.