Energy Efficient Clustering Algorithm Based on Particle Swarm Optimization Technique for Wireless Sensor Networks

Maximizing network lifetime in wireless sensor networks is one of the critical issues, particularly for transmitting multimedia data. The wireless sensor network's lifetime is directly linked to energy conservation at each sensor node in the network. Clustering is the most energy-efficient technique for saving energy in sensor networks. The appropriate method for selecting the cluster head is still lagging. The sink node divides the deployment region into the optimal number of sub-regions depending upon its placement in the sensing region. The initial cluster heads are chosen randomly in each region, and this is not an energy-efficient method. The sink node adopts particle swarm optimization technique to select the cluster head in each region efficiently. The chosen cluster head in each region advertises its role to member nodes. Then, the cluster head node is chosen forms the new cluster. PSO optimization technique with the optimization parameters of clustering coefficient, the sensor node's remaining energy, and the distance from the sink and the head of the cluster to the members is adopted to select the cluster head sensor node. The cluster head spends most of its energy aggregating and transferring the data to the sink node. For unloading the cluster head responsibilities, the assistant cluster head and super cluster head are selected for the aggregation and transfer of data, respectively. The proposed energy efficient cluster head selection algorithm has improved the network lifetime by an average of 65 percent better than the existing clustering algorithms.