An Energy-Efficient Unequal Clustering Routing Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Network

Received: 28 March 2019 Accepted: 29 May 2019 The existing clustering routing protocols face imbalanced energy consumption and the hotspot problem. To solve the problems, this paper proposes an energy-efficient unequal clustering routing algorithm (UCRA). Firstly, the monitoring area was divided by concentric circles into rings of different sizes. Next, the cluster heads were elected based on position and residual energy. Before clustering, each common sensor joins a cluster based on the electability of each cluster head. The electability is defined based on the residual energy of the cluster head and the distance from the cluster head to the centerline of the ring of the common sensor. For multi-hop routing from a cluster head to the base station, the routing sensor was selected dynamically based on the local ring of the cluster head and the residual energy of neighboring cluster heads. The simulation results show that the UCRA can effectively solve the hot-spot problem in uniform clustering routing protocols, balance the energy consumption of network sensors, and extend the network lifecycle.