Fuzzy Logic based Cluster Head Selection method for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy conservation is a major challenging issue in the field of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) since the sensor nodes are battery operated. Among the various topology control techniques, clustering is best and popular technique which provides both energy conservation and scalability. A cluster based routing protocols consists of mainly three phases: cluster head selection, cluster formation and data communication phase. In this paper, a fuzzy logic based cluster head selection method is proposed. In this method, energy of cluster head, node centrality and distance of node from the base station act as fuzzy descriptors to the Mamdani fuzzy inference system. The proposed Fuzzy Logic based Cluster Head Selection (FLCHS) method helps in balancing the load of nodes and leads to energy conservation. The proposed approach FLCHS is compared with the well known Stable Election Protocol (SEP) for heterogeneous networks. The FLCHS protocol performs better than SEP protocol in terms of network lifetime, energy consumption and throughput.