A FUZZY LOGIC CLUSTER FORMATION PROTOCOL FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Abstract

Wireless sensor nodes are resource constrained and have limited amount of energy. Therefore, designing protocols that conserve energy is an important area of research. Researchers have investigated architectures and topologies that allow energy efficient operation of WSNs. One of the popular techniques in this regard is clustering. A typical clustering protocol contains two main steps: cluster head election and cluster formation. This thesis is aimed at investigation of the cluster formation process. We propose a Fuzzy Logic based approach that uses three descriptors namely: energy level, distance between cluster-head and base station, and distance between the cluster-head and the sensor’s node. We compare our proposed model, FLCFP (Fuzzy Logic Clustering Formation Protocol), with the most popular model, LEACH, which was proposed previously to prolong network lifetime. FLCFP approach is shown to prolong network lifetime. In addition, it is shown that sensor node energy is consumed in a more uniform fashion.