Title: UDC: a self-adaptive uneven clustering protocol for dynamic sensor networks

Authors: Guang Jin, Silvia Nittel

Addresses: Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA. ' Department of Spatial Information Science and Engineering, University of Maine, Orono, Maine, USA

Abstract: The resource constraints of sensor networks challenge researchers to design efficient applications to minimise resource consumption. |Sensor databases| benefit from aggregate queries since in most cases a small amount of descriptive information about the queried upon objects is satisfactory to users. Clustering protocols have been designed to support such queries and to alleviate the burden of networks. This paper presents a novel clustering protocol, named Uneven Density Clustering (UDC) spatially, to support aggregation queries aiming to prolong the lifetime of sensor networks. Unlike other clustering protocols, UDC forms distributed sensor nodes into spatially uneven clusters according to local network conditions. In short, clustered by UDC, the nodes nearby a central base station are grouped into smaller clusters, while distant nodes need to be clustered into larger groups to save resources. Our simulation results exemplify that UDC can extend the lifetime of sensor networks up to twice as long as other clustering protocols do.

Keywords: sensor networks; clustering protocols; aggregation queries; self-adaptive clustering; uneven clustering; network lifetime; simulation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2007.012979

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2007 Vol.2 No.1/2, pp.25 - 33

Published online: 02 Apr 2007 *

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