An Efficient Routing Protocol Based on Two Step Cluster Head Selection for Wireless Sensor Networks

It has been demonstrated that clustering is an effective technique to meet the energy constraint problem of wireless sensor networks. Low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) is a well known cluster-based routing protocol. However, the number of cluster heads produced by LEACH in each round varies in a large range around the optimal value, which shortens the lifetime of the network. In this paper, we proposed a new routing protocol, called two step cluster head selection (TSCHS) routing protocol, to solve the cluster head number variability problem of LEACH. In TSCHS, cluster head selection is divided into two stages. Firstly, temporary cluster heads are selected in initial selection stage with the number larger than the optimal value, and then cluster heads of optimal number are chosen out of the temporary cluster heads according to both residual energy and distances from them to the base station. As a result, the network works with the optimal number of clusters. Simulation results show that TSCHS can make the whole network energy load more balanced and prolong the network lifetime.