A Low Energy MCL-Based Clustering Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have attracted increasing attention during the two last decades. Indeed, their applications target a wide range of fields such as healthcare, industrial control, environmental monitoring, etc. The main challenge of WSNs is the limitation of resources requiring efficient management of energy consumption. Coverage is also considered as one of the critical indicators of the quality of service (QoS) of WSNs. Therefore, the design of routing protocols should focus on energy efficiency and network coverage. In this paper, the authors propose a novel energy-efficient clustering protocol that is more efficient than some prominent routing protocols and offers better coverage of the network than LEACH. The protocol combines the MCL algorithm for cluster formation and a new cluster head selection strategy based on location and residual energy of sensors. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed protocol is better than other protocols in terms of energy management and extending the lifetime of the network, whereas, it achieves good coverage than LEACH.