DUCA: An approach to elongate the lifetime of wireless sensor nodes

Clustering the wireless sensor network (WSN) is a persuasive methodology for increasing the sensor nodes’ lifetime. The clustering algorithms normally selects nodes as a cluster head only if the node has abundant remaining energy and quick energy depletion in the nodes is balanced through rotating the cluster heads at regular intervals. Mostly, the WSN is divided into small areas of identical size called clusters, which lead to non-uniform energy loads among the heads of the cluster and member nodes of the cluster. The head nodes of the cluster closer to the sink have a larger burden of the energy load. In order to prolong the premature node failure, it is very much essential to manage the energy load of the nodes. We propose a Distributed Unequal Clustering Algorithm (DUCA), which addresses hotspot issues and imbalanced energy consumption. In the proposed algorithm, the energy load balancing is dealt with by making the cluster size small which is near to sink against the nodes farthest from the sink. For inter-cluster communication and direct routing with the sink, the multi-hop routing technique is implemented. The behavior of the proposed protocol is simulated against the LEACH protocol. The simulation results prove that the proposed unequal clustering method balances uniform depletion of energy in the network and also effectively addresses the hot spot issues. The proposed DUCA enhances the greater improvement in the lifespan of the WSN.