DiCDU: distributed clustering with decreased uncovered nodes for WSNs

Abstract

This study proposes a distributed cluster-based routing algorithm, distributed clustering with decreased uncovered nodes (DiCDU), alleviating the uncovered node problem occurring after the election of cluster heads. For the purpose of increasing the performance of the system in terms of the lifetime of the network, an energy-based cluster head election without requiring any extra control message is used. Moreover, an energy saving mode is proposed, in which the nodes perform static clustering controlled by predefined thresholds to conserve batteries. Extensive simulations are conducted for different values of cluster radius and the number of nodes and proposed schema is compared with similar methods, including a time-based cluster-head selection algorithm for low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy, a clustering algorithm based on time delay, and regional energy aware clustering with the isolated nodes, for the death of the first, the half and the last nodes with the number of uncovered nodes. The results show that DiCDU outperforms compared approaches for all values of cluster radius and the number of nodes.