Mobility‐compatible cache controlled cluster networking protocol

SummaryThe cluster networking protocols are the roots that embed intelligent decision‐making and enhance the lifespan of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Wireless sensors with limited capabilities face several challenges due to the heterogeneous application environments. Especially, the mobility‐incorporated sensors in most situations trouble the cluster network's robustness. Many cluster networking protocols have been presented in the past to enhance the network lifespan and data delivery ratio. However, they lack a dedicated and efficient mechanism for mobility assistance, an adequate cluster management process and cluster head selection criteria. To overcome these issues and for the uniform energy load distribution, we propose a mobility‐compatible cache controlled cluster networking protocol (MC‐CCCNP) in this paper. It is an energy‐efficient cluster networking protocol that supports sensor movement. Network resource management and routing are controlled distributively by an optimal number of cache nodes. It defines a new strategy for cache node deployment based on neighbour density as well as a weight formula for cluster head selection and cluster formation based on the residual energy, the distance to the base station and the node velocity. It also includes techniques for detaching and reconnecting a mobile node to an appropriate cluster cache if it crosses the cluster boundary. We simulate and compare the performance of our protocol with the centralised energy‐efficient clustering routing, energy‐efficient mobility‐based cluster head selection protocol and dual tier cluster‐based routing protocols over different network configurations with varying mobility, scalability and heterogeneity. The MC‐CCCNP showed remarkable improvements in energy utilisation uniformity and energy consumption. With the improved network lifespan, it also maintains a higher data throughput rate of 95% or more in almost all network configurations.