Balancing energy consumption across network for maximizing lifetime in cluster-based wireless sensor network

For any wireless sensor network to be useful, it is imperative that the constituent nodes are able to conserve energy and yet forward data so as to enhance network lifetime. In a sensor network where the sensing area is very large, transmitting data directly from far away sensor node to base station results into higher energy consumption. If data is indirectly forwarded through other cluster heads, energy holes are created near the base-station, as nodes closer to the base-station have to forward more data. In the proposed approach, all cluster heads forward data directly as well as through other cluster heads, to balance the energy consumption across clusters. In order to reduce the synchronization overhead, a LDC-MAC (Chauhan and Gore 2012) protocol is used, that efficiently manages data forwarding during sleep period. In the proposed approach, the energy consumption of all the sensor nodes in the network are uniform irrespective of their distance from the base station and thus prevents the creation of energy holes in the network. The analysis of simulation results justify the proposed approach and also establishes that efficient balancing of energy consumption across the clusters yields a better lifetime of the wireless sensor network.