An Energy-Efficient Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Clustering the sensor nodes is one of the most popular and effective topology control approaches in a wireless sensor network. Topology control balances load on sensor nodes, and increases network scalability and lifetime. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering approach that periodically elects cluster heads and assistant nodes together. The assistant nodes substitute for each cluster head to transmit sensor readings to the base station. In order to show the superiority of our clustering algorithm, we compare it with the existing clustering algorithms in terms of the lifetime of the sensor network. As a result, our experimental results show that the proposed clustering algorithm achieves about 10% ~ 40% performance improvements over the existing clustering algorithms in terms of lifetime.