Energy-Efficient Wireless Sensor Networks Using Flat Cluster-based Routing Protocol and Evolutionary Algorithms

Wireless sensor networks have a large number of limited-energy sensor nodes dispersed in a finite area. Most node energies are used to send data to the central station. Due to the energy constraints in this type of grid, increasing life expectancy has always been a concern with decreasing energy consumption. The aim of this study is to provide surface clustering based on genetic algorithm in order to increase the life span of these networks. In proposed surface clustering, the geographic area is divided into three levels according to the radio range and the clustering of the nodes of each level is done individually. The cluster heads use more energy than other nodes to send information, so the proposed algorithm aims to reduce the number of cluster heads in order to increase the network lifetime. Finally, by changing the clusters in each routing round, there is a greater energy balance between the nodes. The results from the experiments indicate the superiority of the proposed algorithm in transmitting messages and network lifetimes over other similar protocols.