An Efficient Energy Harvesting Assited Clustering Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

One of the prominent challenges in Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is the energy conservation of sensor nodes irrespective of the nature of the sensor applications due to the tiny, limited batteries of the nodes.One promising solution to preserve energy is the clustering phenomenon and this mechanism also requires adequate stress on overall overhead of the network. Various clustering solutions have been addressed to extricate the power constraints of the sensor networks and they fluctuate in their boundaries owing to the multifaceted nature of this problem. In a typical clustering process in a WSN, energy is consumed in three phases: data sensing, data forwarding and data aggregation. A potential green, untrammeled replacement towards the conventional clustered sensor networks is the harvesting and utilization of energy from an ambient power resource. Unlike many other solutions, this approach overcomes the customary trade-offs but hosts economic and application-specific constraints. Our proposed Efficient Energy Harvestingassisted Clustering (EEHC) scheme contributes the idea of forming effective clusters that are free of residual nodes and overlapping. In this environment each sensor node is equipped with the energy harvesting device.The cluster head effectively balances the load in a cluster based on energy budgeting and nearly reduces the need for reclustering. Our approach is compared against the conventional and modern clustering algorithms for WSNs and yields significant improvement in the scope of lifetime from the pecuniary perspective.