Performance analysis of energy efficient clustering protocols to maximize Wireless Sensor Networks lifetime

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) offer a powerful combination of distributed sensing, computing and communication. The WSN is capable of deploying a large number of sensors in an area without any infrastructure, with a great flexibility for event monitoring. Sensor networks are constructed of various types of homogeneous or heterogeneous sensor nodes with limited resources. Ideally, sensor network should be power-efficient, small, inexpensive, and reliable in order to maximize network lifetime. These networks should be flexible, and also facilitate data collection and minimize the required maintenance. Routing performances and techniques are the most important subject to be studied where resources are limited. Several routing protocols are proposed to reduce energy consumption of sensors. The hierarchical routing with the idea of clustering like LEACH, HEED, SEP, and DEEC are already well known as the best protocols to provide energy efficiency. This paper presents analysis the efficiency of these routing protocols, and discussion about their merits and demerits in various conditions. Further more, comparisons of these protocols in terms of energy consumption, packet transmission, and network lifetime with a complete performance analysis and simulation are investigated. The simulations show that DEEC performs much better than the other protocols in terms of energy efficiency with maximum alive nodes and lowest dead nodes. Moreover HEED protocol performs well enhanced than the SEP and LEACH protocols in both heterogeneous and homogenous environments.