An Energy Aware Unequal Clustering Algorithm using Fuzzy Logic for Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, clustering provides an effective way of organising the sensor nodes to achieve load balancing and increasing the lifetime of the network. Unequal clustering is an extension of common clustering that exhibits even better load balancing. Most existing approaches do not consider node density when clustering, which can pose significant problems. In this paper, a fuzzy-logic based cluster head selection approach is proposed, which considers the residual energy, centrality and density of the nodes. In addition, a fuzzy-logic based clustering range assignment approach is used, which considers the suitability and the position of the nodes in assigning the clustering range. Furthermore, a weight function is used to optimize the selection of the relay nodes. The proposed approach was compared with a number of well known approaches by simulation. The results showed that the proposed approach performs better than the other algorithms in terms of lifetime and other metrics