Energy-constrained Wireless Sensor Network Cluster Routing Algorithm

Wireless sensor networks(WSN) is a new type of network which gathers multi-technologyas an integral whole and has prosperous applications and great potential, having been theresearch focus at home and abroad in recent years. The WSN node’s energy is usuallyprovided by a battery, so network protocol of every layer should take energy-constrainedmethod in the design. Recently, a large number of routing protocols are proposed, amongwhich energy-constrained cluster routing protocol is one of research hotspots. The clusterprotocol can not only expend network’s lifetime but also have a good scalability. The typicalclustering protocol include LEACH and SolarLEACH, but there are some defects in thecluster head selection, the next hop routing and network reconstruction, so aenergy-constrained WSN cluster routing algorithm EWCRA is proposed to solve theseproblems in the paper. The main contents in this article are as follows:Firstly, according to the first-price sealed auction model of game theory to realize theselection of cluster head, this algorithm redefines the bidding function and takes some factorsinto consideration, which includes the energy of the node, the distribution and status of theneighbors, the distance with the base station. Besides, the non-uniform clustering mechanismis used in this paper.Secondly, a computing next hop routing method is put forward in the phase of datatransmission. This method considers the neighboring cluster head’s residual energy and thedistance with the cluster head and the base station, and the most recommended cluster headare chosen as the next hop according to the evaluation function proposed in this paper.Thirdly, the author put forwards an idea in the network reconstruction: after one roundwork, the base station decides whether to carry out network reconstruction on the basis of thecurrent cluster heads’ energy status and the loss in the last round. When the remaining energyis more than the energy consumption of the last round, the cluster structure in the last round isstill applied in the new round, otherwise the reconstruction of the cluster will be done.The simulation results show that, the proposed algorithm can not only make the clusterhead nodes’ distribution reasonable and balance the networks’ energy consumption, but alsoexpend the network’s lifetime.