Energy-balanced clustering protocol for data gathering in wireless sensor networks with unbalanced traffic load

Energy-efficient data gathering in multi-hop wireless sensor networks was studied,considering that different node produces different amounts of data in realistic environments.A novel dominating set based clustering protocol (DSCP) was proposed to solve the data gathering problem in this scenario.In DSCP,a node evaluates the potential lifetime of the network (from its local point of view) assuming that it acts as the cluster head,and claims to be a tentative cluster head if it maximizes the potential lifetime.When evaluating the potential lifetime of the network,a node considers not only its remaining energy,but also other factors including its traffic load,the number of its neighbors,and the traffic loads of its neighbors.A tentative cluster head becomes a final cluster head with a probability inversely proportional to the number of tentative cluster heads that cover its neighbors.The protocol can terminate in O(n/lg n) steps,and its total message complexity is O(n2/lg n).Simulation results show that DSCP can effectively prolong the lifetime of the network in multi-hop networks with unbalanced traffic load.Compared with EECT,the network lifetime is prolonged by 56.6% in average.