Heterogeneous HEED Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the important protocols for increasing the network lifetime in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is hybrid energy efficient distributed (HEED) protocol. This protocol considers two parameters for deciding the cluster heads, i.e., residual energy and node density and has been designed for the homogeneous WSNs. In this paper, we consider the implementation of HEED for a heterogeneous network. Depending upon the type of nodes, it defines one-level, two-level, and three-level heterogeneity and accordingly the implementation of HEED is referred to as hetHEED-1, hetHEED-2, and hetHEED-3, respectively. We also consider one more parameter, i.e., distance and apply fuzzy logic to determine the cluster heads and accordingly the hetHEED-1, hetHEED-2, and hetHEED-3 are named as HEED-FL, hetHEED-FL-2, hetHEED-FL-3, respectively. The simulation results show that as the level of heterogeneity increases in the network, the nodes remain alive for longer time and the rate of energy dissipation decreases. And also, increasing the heterogeneity level helps sending more packets to the base station and increases the network lifetime. The increase in the network energy increases the network lifetime manifold. In fact, using fuzzy logic, the network lifetime increases by 114.85 % that of the original HEED without any increase in the network energy. Thus, the hetHEED-FL-3 provides the longest lifetime (387.94 % increase) in lifetime at the cost of 19 % increase in network energy), sends maximum number of packets to the base station, and has minimum rate of energy dissipation.