Two Fold Cluster Head Selection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy efficient routing protocol is the requirement of today’s wireless sensor networks. Various protocols have been developed in order to create an energy efficient wireless sensor networks, but there are still some shortcomings in this area. During cluster formation, some nodes are left alone and referred to as lone nodes, which directly communicate with the Base Station (BS) and consume a significant portion of the energy. To overcome this issue, this study proposes a Two-Fold Cluster Head Selection (TFCHS) routing algorithm that reduces the number of lone nodes and enhances the network’s lifetime. The proposed algorithm is based on the LEACH-B (LEACH-Balanced) and Residual Energy (ResEn) protocols. In TFCHS, lone node cluster formation is achieved by identifying the location of lone nodes and comparing their distance to a threshold distance. Cluster Heads (CHs) are then selected, and they broadcast TDMA slots to their member nodes in a steady phase, where nodes send their data to the CH. The CHs process the received data and send it to the BS. The proposed work performed better in terms of average aggregation energy, lone nodes, consumed energy, network lifetime, and effective packets.