Adaptive Lagrangean Clustering Protocol

A Wireless Sensor Network is a distributed network of sensor nodes deployed in order to monitor physical or environmental conditions. One of the major challenges in the deployment of wireless sensor networks is the efficient usage of the sensor nodes´ limited energy. In this paper we propose a novel clustering protocol for homogeneous wireless sensor networks. The clustering protocol, Adaptive Lagrangean Clustering Protocol (ALCP), is a hybrid scheme. The protocol consists of a centralized and a distributed phase for cluster formation. It considers residual energy of sensor nodes for the election of cluster heads. The problem of cluster head election is modeled as a facility location problem. Lagrangean Surrogate heuristic is used as a solution to the problem. For energy efficient propagation of messages to Base Station hierarchical clustering is done. ALCP outperforms existing protocols in terms of network lifetime and energy distribution.