Energy Efficient Routing Protocol with Improved Clustering Strategies for Homogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

A new energy aware routing protocol to optimize energy consumption and prolong network lifetime for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) had been proposed in this paper. Cluster based routing techniques like the conventional Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) are used to achieve scalable solutions and extend the network lifetime until the last node dies. Improved Energy Efficient LEACH (IMP-EEL) has been proposed in this work and compared with the other existing algorithms like LEACH, Residual Energy LEACH (RES-EL) and Distributed Residual Energy LEACH (DIS-RES-EL). The proposed algorithm (IMP-RESEL) outperformed all the other algorithms in extending network lifetime, network stability, sending aggregated packets to Cluster heads (CHs) and to Base station(BS) and CH formation during their entire lifetime considered. With optimum routing established within the network as per the newly proposed clustering threshold, IMP-EEL has significantly reduced energy consumption and maintained 72% more energy efficiency than the LEACH homogeneous system. General Terms Wireless Sensor Networks, clustering, energy efficiency, homogeneous network.