Optimizing the Number of Clusters in Multi-Hop Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, an analytical model is proposed to compute the optimal number of clusters that minimizes the energy consumption of multi-hop wireless sensor networks. In the proposed analytical model, the average hop count between a general node (GN) and its nearest clusterhead (CH) is obtained assuming a uniform distribution. How the position of the sink impacts the optimal number of clusters is also discussed. A numerical simulation is carried out to validate the proposed model in various network environments. key words: wireless sensor network, optimization, multi-hop clustering, the number of clusters