A Cooperative Clustering Protocol With Duty Cycling for Energy Harvesting Enabled Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper proposes a cooperative clustering protocol
based on the low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy
(LEACH) approach to enhance the longevity of energy harvesting
based wireless sensor networks (EH-WSN). In the proposed
protocol, to ensure that any energy consumption associated with
the role of the cluster head (CH) is shared between the nodes,
the CH role is alternated between the nodes using duty cycling
as a function of their individual energy harvesting capabilities.
Furthermore, to maintain an energy neutral operation when
not acting as a CH, the nodes adopt a data transmission duty
cycle and any excess energy is invested in relaying other nodes’
packets. To optimize the relaying performance, a novel crosslayer
cooperative TDMA scheme is also presented. The optimal
number of clusters in an EH-WSN is analyzed in terms of
energy consumption, latency and bandwidth utilization. Simulations,
performed using GreenCastalia, demonstrate tangible
performance enhancements in adopting the proposed protocol
over benchmark schemes in terms of throughput and lifetime,
particularly under highly constrained energy conditions.