Energy Consumption in Random Cluster Head selection Phase of WSN
Rabia Noor Enam, Mumtazul Imam, Rehan Inam Qureshi · 2012
Abstract. In a hierarchal and random cluster head selection protocol of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) the energy consumed in the cluster head setup phase has been taken ostensibly in the previous research works. In this paper this area of the protocol has been addressed and overhead energy, that is the energy consumed in the random cluster head setup phase, has been calculated. The basic model based on LEACH protocol is redeveloped to calculate the energy consumptions in the three phases of data transmissions from sensor nodes to the sink. It is shown through the extensive simulations of this model that the overhead energy is at least 20% of the network’s total energy consumed in data transmissions. The optimum value of cluster heads, based on network lifetime has been calculated taking into consideration the energy consumed in the setup phase as well. Keywords: cluster head setup phase, overhead energy, efficient energy, network lifetime. 1. Introduction WSN is a kind of an ad-hoc wireless network consisting of spatially distributed sensors nodes and a sink. The job of the sensor nodes is to cooperatively monitor/collect data from physical or environmental phenomenon. The collected data is then forwarded to the sink, which could be wired or wirelessly connected to the main information collection centre. The development of low-cost, low-power, small size and multifunctional sensor nodes have put some of the very significant resource constraints in WSN. Some examples of limitations are buffer size, transmission capacity and energy/power consumption of the sensor nodes. A WSN lifetime is dependent on the energy of individual sensor nodes therefore efficient utilization of each node’s energy is a vital issue. A sensor node consumes significantly less energy for information processing than for communication [1]. This characteristic of a sensor node makes it important to concentrate more on reducing transmission of redundant data during the transfers of sensed information from each node to the sink. The researchers have compared and calculated many energy affecting parameters of the random cluster head (CH) selection protocols of WSN, for example LEACH[2], HEED[3] and EAP[4] etc which are called energy efficient protocols. The data transmission periods in these protocols are divided into rounds and in each round a random CH selection mechanism is performed. In this paper the over head energy consumed in the random CH selection phase has been calculated. It is shown through extensive simulations that these phases, due to the transmission of control packets, consume 21% to 32% of the total network energy, the optimum value of the CH has been calculated according to the minimum overhead energy consumption in cluster head selection phases. The remaining paper is divided as follows .In section II a short overview of the routing techniques and developments made to reduce the energy consumption in WSN is given. In section III the approach used for