An energy-aware cluster-based stable protocol for wireless sensor networks

Abstract

The widespread use of wireless sensor devices and their advancements in terms of size, deployment cost and user-friendly interface have given rise to many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs need to utilize routing techniques to forward data samples from event regions to sink via minimum cost links. Clustering is a commonly used data aggregation technique in which nodes are organized into groups in order to reduce the energy consumption. However, in clustering protocols, cluster-head (CH) has to bear an additional load for coordinating various activities within the cluster. Therefore, proper CH selection and their load balancing using efficient routing protocol is a critical aspect for the long-run operation of WSN. In this paper, genetic algorithm (GA)-based threshold-sensitive energy-efficient routing protocol (TERP) is proposed to prolong network lifetime. Multi-hop communication between CHs and base station (BS) is utilized using GA to achieve optimal link cost for load balancing of distant CHs and energy minimization. The paper also considers stability-aware model of TERP named stable TERP (STERP) so as to extend the stability period (time interval from initial time to the death of first node) of the network. In STERP, energy-aware heuristics is applied for CH selection in order to improve the stability period. Analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methodology significantly outperforms existing protocols in terms of energy consumption, system lifetime and stability period.