Title: A distributed clustering method for energy-efficient data gathering in sensor networks

Authors: Junpei Kamimura, Naoki Wakamiya, Masayuki Murata

Addresses: Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. ' Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan. ' Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University, 1-5 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan

Abstract: Since sensor nodes operate on batteries, energy-efficient mechanisms for gathering sensor data are indispensable in prolonging the lifetime of a sensor network as long as possible. In this paper, we propose a novel clustering method where energy-efficient clusters are organised in a distributed and self-organising way through local communication among sensor nodes. Our method is based on the idea of ANTCLUST, a clustering algorithm which applies the colonial closure model of ants. Through simulation experiments, we showed that our method could gather data from more than 80% of the sensor nodes, longer than other clustering methods by over 30%.

Keywords: wireless sensor networks; data gathering; distributed clustering algorithms; energy efficiency; biological systems; wireless networks; data collection; sensor data; self-organisation; colonial closure model; ant colonies; simulation; network lifetime.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWMC.2006.012470

International Journal of Wireless and Mobile Computing, 2006 Vol.1 No.2, pp.113 - 120

Published online: 16 Feb 2007 *

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