Energy Aware Clustering Protocol(EACP) For Heterogeneous WSNs

Energy saving to prolong the network life is an important design issue while developing a new routing protocol for wireless sensor network. Clustering is a key technique for this and helps in maximizing the network lifetime and scalability. Most of the routing and data dissemination protocols of WSN assume a homogeneous network architecture, in which all sensors have the same capabilities in terms of battery power, communication, sensing, storage, and processing. Recently, there has been an interest in heterogeneous sensor networks, especially for real deployments. This research paper has proposed a new energy aware clustering protocol (EACP) for heterogeneous wireless sensor networks. Heterogeneity is introduced in EACP by using two types of nodes: normal and advanced. In EACP cluster heads for normal nodes are elected with the help of a probability scheme based on residual and average energy of the normal nodes. This will ensure that only the high residual normal nodes can become the cluster head in a round. Advanced nodes use a separate probability based scheme for cluster head election and they will further act as a gateway for normal cluster heads and transmit their data load to base station when they are not doing the duty of a cluster head. Finally a sleep state is suggested for some sensor nodes during cluster formation phase to save network energy. The performance of EACP is compared with SEP and simulation result shows the better result for stability period, network life and energy saving than SEP.