An Energy-Balanced Clustering Protocol Based on an Improved CFSFDP Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Clustering, as an essential part in an hierarchy protocol that can prolong the network lifetime, is influenced by the cluster head selection and clustering scheme. A new clustering algorithm called clustering by fast search and finding of density peaks (CFSFDP) based on local density and distance is implementable and efficient. In this paper, we combine this clustering algorithm with a hierarchy protocol in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). However, energy consumption in each round is unbalanced only considering these two variables during the clustering phase, which leads to the early death of the first node. In order to solve this problem, we take residual energy into consideration in our improved CFSFDP-E (energy) algorithm so as to ultimately balance the energy consumption of the network. We analyze different forms of energy and choose a dynamic threshold for each round in the CFSFDP-E algorithm. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can not only postpone the death of the first node by almost 50% compared to LEACH, but that it also outperforms several related protocols with respect to energy efficiency.