Multi-hop Communication based optimal clustering in hexagon and voronoi cell structured WSNs

Energy saving is always an important issue as most of the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) work in an unattended geographical environment where human access and monitoring are practically impossible. One of the existing ways of saving energy in WSNs is clustering of sensor nodes. Furthermore, the clustering process can be made more effective by optimizing the number of clusters. Cluster shape, Intra-cluster and Inter cluster topologies are some of the impacting factors for energy conservation in WSNs. In this paper, for the purpose of further saving the energy consumption, we considered a network with multi-hop communication. An analytical expression is developed for finding optimal clusters particularly, when the sensing field is split into hexagonal and voronoi clusters. Besides, the effect of data aggregation ratio, position of base station on the overall energy consumption is analysed through different case studies. The obtained results are compared with the single-hop counterparts. A significant reduction in the energy consumption can be observed from the results. Thus, multi-hop based optimal clustering results in a substantial reduction of energy consumption in WSN.