Novel Energy Aware Algorithm to Design Multilayer Architecture for Dense Wireless Sensor Networks

1. Introduction

Network layer functionalities are of core importance in the communication process and so the routing with energy aware trait is indispensable for improved network performance and increased network lifetime. Designing of protocol at this under discussion layer must consider the aforementioned factors especially for energy aware routing process. In wireless sensor networks there may be hundreds or thousands of sensor nodes communicating with each other and with the base station, which consumes more energy in exchanging data and information with the additive issues of unbalanced load and intolerable faults. Two main types of network architectures for sensed data dissemination from source to destination exist in the literature; Flat network architecture, clustered network architecture. In flat architecture based networks, uniformity can be seen since all the network nodes work in a same mode and generally don’t have any distinguished role. So usually no conservation of energy is supported by itself from its architectural setup. In cluster based network architecture, autonomous nodes are grouped in a centralized way to designate one node as head and other nodes as members in called clustering. Group is named cluster. Designated head is termed as cluster head and its member nodes are called as cluster members. Figure 1 depicts a complete scenario of complete network architecture.

Figure 1.

Complete scenario of clustered network architecture

Cluster head (CH) acquires the sensed data from cluster member nodes, aggregates and forwards it to other cluster heads directly or via some transit node (multi-hop) or directly (direct-hop) to the base station. From these two communication models, direct hop fits better for small scale networks where the nodes communicate directly to the base station. The approachable network size is a function of maximum communication range of node. For large scale networks, multi-hop communication model provides scalability through the transit nodes’ assistance to destine the data to far distantly placed Base Station (BS). Simulation based comparative analysis of this direct hop and multi-hop communication to the base station is given in detail by Jabbar, Minhas, Paul, & Rho (2014). Hence, in clustered network architecture, nodes are designated different roles. Some head the cluster, some become member of cluster, some are ready to be set as cluster head, some assist the cluster head in performing its job, and some acts as communication bridge for the a cluster node to communicate with other network node. Figure 2 shows the possible roles of a node during its life time depending upon the underlying clustering algorithm. The role of the node that are underlined in the figure are the part of every clustering algorithm. For better understanding of the role, short description is also given with each one.

Figure 2.

Various roles of node during its life time in clustered network architecture