Energy-Efficient Routing Protocol Based on Clustering and Least Spanning Tree in Wireless Sensor Networks

A particular wireless sensor networks (WSNs), cluster-based WSN (CWSN) have received more and more attention due to the limited energy of battery-powered nodes, but rarely consider the shortest path at the same time. In this paper, we propose an novel energy-efficient routing protocol based on clustering and least spanning tree for wireless sensor network to prolong network lifetime and shorten path while emphasizing energy conservation at the same time. Clustering includes partitioning stage and choosing stage, namely, partitions the multi-hop network and then chooses cluster-heads, cluster-head is responsible for receiving, sending and maintaining information in its cluster. Then all cluster-heads will construct a least spanning tree to prolong network lifetime, save energy and shorten path. Simulation results show that the system¿s performance have further improved by using clustering and least spanning tree. It is a promising approach and deserves more future research.