Lifetime enhanced energy efficient wireless sensor networks using renewable energy

Abstract

In this paper, we consider a remote environment with randomly deployed sensor nodes, with an initial energy of E0 (J) and a solar panel. A hierarchical clustering technique is implemented. At each round, the normal nodes send the sensed data to the nearest cluster head (CH) which is chosen on the probability value. Data after aggregation at CHs is sent to the base station (BS). CH requires more energy than normal nodes. Here, we energize only CHs if their energy is less than 5% of its initial value with the use of solar energy. We evaluate parameters like energy consumption, the lifetime of the network, and data packets sent to CH and BS. The obtained results are compared with existing techniques. The proposed protocol provides better energy efficiency and network lifetime. The results show increased stability with delayed death of the first node. The network lifetime of the proposed protocol is compared to the multi-level hybrid energy efficient distributed (MLHEED) technique and low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) variants. Network lifetime is enhanced by 13.35%. Energy consumption is reduced with respect to MLHEED-4, 5, and 6 by 7.15%, 12.10%, and 14.975% respectively. The no. of packets transferred to the BS is greater than the MLHEED protocol by 39.03%.