Energy Efficient Clustering Algorithm Using RFD Based Multi-hop Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks

In recent years, researchers have focused on many challenging aspects in the area of Wireless Sensor networks (WSNs). Development of energy efficient data collection protocols became the major concern in WSN. Clustering is one of the suitable techniques for energy efficiency. However, in clustering, the cluster are formed with uneven size. This unbalances the energy consumption among clusters which in turn reduce the lifetime of the network. In this paper, in order to balance the energy among clusters, a multi-hop concept is introduced for both intra and inter cluster communication. Firstly, the RFDMRP: River Formation Dynamics based Multi-hop Routing Protocol has been proposed. Later, this protocol is integrated with clustering and a new hybrid technique, named as hybrid clustering communication algorithm using RFDMRP (HCCRFD) is introduced. HCCRFD improves energy conservation by reducing overall packet transmission distance of intra and inter cluster communication, which results in increased network lifetime. Energy consumption of proposed algorithm has been analyzed mathematically. Also, the algorithms were simulated using MATLAB and outputs observed. The observed outputs were compared with existing protocols such as LEACH, DEEC, ERA, and \(ACH^2\) in three different scenarios namely homogenous, heterogeneous environment, and node density. The comparison reveals that the proposed algorithm perform better than the existing protocols with respect to energy conservation and network lifetime.