A Distributed Fault-Tolerant Multi-objective Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Energy conservation is the most significant issue in wireless sensor networks due to limited power sources of sensor nodes that cannot be recharged or replaced. Clustering is considered to be energy-efficient in WSN as it reduces the number of sensor nodes taking part in long range communication. During clustering, each sensor node selects a cluster head (CH) to join a cluster among several candidate CHs. The selection of cluster head uses different parameters such as residual energy of cluster head and distance between node and cluster head. A poor selection of cluster head will lead to increased energy consumption in network that will degrade the network lifetime. Furthermore, sensor nodes are likely to fail due to different factors such as limited energy and environment hazards. So, the fault tolerance is another challenge for long run of the WSNs. In this paper, we propose a distributed fault-tolerant multi-objective clustering algorithm (DFMCA). In this algorithm, each sensor takes its decision using local information only. We also propose a recovery algorithm in case of sudden death of the cluster heads in the network. A simulation result demonstrates that our algorithm outperforms the existing state-of-the-art algorithms, namely FTCA and LBCA, in terms of network lifetime.