Sink as Cluster head: An energy efficient clustering method for wireless sensor networks

Clustering of nodes is one of the basic techniques used for data collection in wireless sensor networks. It has been observed that in most of these clustering techniques based upon the local attributes of sensor nodes, some of them are selected as cluster-heads. The nodes which are selected as cluster-head have to dissipate more energy as they have to receive and aggregate data of their respective member nodes. Moreover, Cluster-head nodes near to sink dissipate more energy as these nodes have to relay data of far off placed nodes. Due to this fast dissipation of energy, energy holes are created near to sink which in turn decreases network lifetime. In order to address these issues, we present energy efficient clustering method and propose to select sink as one of the cluster-heads. By selecting sink as cluster-head, the nodes placed near to it can be spared from performing duties of cluster-heads and thus the problem of energy hole creation near to sink can be avoided. The proposed method has been named as energy efficient clustering with sink as cluster-head - EEC-SCH. We compare EEC-SCH with LEACH-ERE, LEACH and WCA. Our simulation results show that EEC-SCH results into enhanced network lifetime, throughput and balanced energy consumption among sensor nodes.