DCR: An Energy-Efficient Distributed Clustering and Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

In resent years many routing protocols have been proposed for wireless sensor networks, among which the adaptive routing protocols are very attractive because their low routing overhead. In this paper we propose an energy efficient distributed clustering and routing protocol (DCR). It mainly includes distributed nodes clustering and distributed multi-hop routing. In clustering stage, we introduce an uneven clustering mechanism. Cluster heads which are closer to the base station (BS) have smaller cluster size than those farther from BS, thus they can preserve some energy for the inter-cluster data forwarding. In distributed routing stage, each cluster head chooses its next-hop neighbor for inter-cluster communication independently according to the distance to BS and its residual energy. The simulation results demonstrate that DCR significantly minimizes energy consumption of nodes and extends the network lifetime compared with some existing clustering protocols.