DDCP: The Dynamic Differential Clustering Protocol Considering Mobile Sinks for WSNs

Abstract

In this paper, we extended a hierarchical clustering technique, which is the most researched in the sensor network field, and studied a dynamic differential clustering technique to minimize energy consumption and ensure equal lifespan of all sensor nodes while considering the mobility of sinks. In a sensor network environment with mobile sinks, clusters close to the sinks tend to consume more forwarding energy. Therefore, clustering that considers forwarding energy consumption is desired. Since all clusters form a hierarchical tree, the number of levels of the tree must be considered based on the size of the cluster so that the cluster size is not growing abnormally, and the energy consumption is not concentrated within specific clusters. To verify that the proposed DDC protocol satisfies these requirements, a simulation using Matlab was performed. The FND (First Node Dead), LND (Last Node Dead), and residual energy characteristics of the proposed DDC protocol were compared with the popular clustering protocols such as LEACH and EEUC. As a result, it was shown that FND appears the latest and the point at which the dead node count increases is delayed in the DDC protocol. The proposed DDC protocol presents 66.3% improvement in FND and 13.8% improvement in LND compared to LEACH protocol. Furthermore, FND improved 79.9%, but LND declined 33.2% when compared to the EEUC. This verifies that the proposed DDC protocol can last for longer time with more number of surviving nodes.