An unequal clustering protocol for wireless sensor networks

In this paper, a Single-Hop Unequal Clustering (SHUC) algorithm is proposed for wireless sensor networks. The SHUC algorithm consists of three different parts. Firstly, an average energy factor is introduced to balance the residual energy of the whole network during the tentative cluster-head selection process, which improves the network energy efficiency. Secondly, a cost function is proposed to balance energy-efficiency of each node. Finally, an unequal clustering algorithm is proposed for single-hop homogeneous networks. Through both theoretical analysis and numerical results, it is shown that SHUC prolongs the network lifetime significantly against other clustering protocols such as LEACH-C and EECS. Under general instance, SHUC may prolong the lifetime by up to 30% against EECS and 70% against LEACH-C.