Extending Network Life Time of WSN Through an Optimal Number of Aggregator Nodes for Data Aggregation Protocols

Maximization of life of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a challenging task. As WSNs are energy-constraint networks, it is very important for them to use their energy in an efficient manner so that their network life is prolonged. This aspect has attracted many researchers to work on different parameters for determining the method for increasing the efficient energy utilization in WSN. One approach is to choose an optimal number of cluster heads or aggregator nodes for data aggregation. For every protocol in a multi-hop environment an average energy per round is calculated and optimal probability of node becoming the aggregator node is determined and hence a selection of an optimal number of aggregator nodes. This leads to the minimization of the average energy per round for the network in question. In this paper, we carry out the comparative analysis of variants of Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering (DEEC) protocol by following probabilistic approach for calculating the number of cluster heads to analyze the network life time and number of packets transmitted to the base station. The results from comparative analysis provide the basis for further investigating the use of probability factor to extend network life time. We propose a method to dynamically calculate the probability for selecting the optimal number of aggregator nodes to maximize the network lifetime as well as to maximize the number of packets sent to the base station.