An energy distance aware clustering protocol with Dual Cluster Heads using Niching Particle Swarm Optimization for wireless sensor networks

Energy efficient utilization is an important criteria and factor that affects the design of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this literature, we propose an energy distance aware clustering protocol with Dual Cluster Heads using Niching Particle Swarm Optimization (DCH-NPSO). The protocol selects two cluster heads in each cluster, the Master Cluster Head (MCH) and the Slave Cluster Head (SCH), and the selection needs to consider the network state information carefully and deliberately. Simulation results show that the protocol we proposed can balance the energy dissipation and extend the network lifetime effectively.