An energy efficient and optimal randomized clustering for wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) is widely used for gathering data in the distributed fashion. In WSN, each node has limited energy resource, and thus the lifetime of the network is one of the most critical issues. In this paper we propose an energy efficient and optimal randomized clustering protocol for self-organizing WSNs. The proposed scheme decides optimal number of clusters by employing a new approach for setting threshold value, including the probability of optimum number of cluster-heads and residual energy of the nodes. We also introduce a new approach maximize the network lifetime by tree construction in each cluster. Computer simulation shows that the proposed scheme effectively reduces and balances the energy consumption among the nodes, and thus significantly extends the network lifetime compared to the existing schemes.