A Modified GA-Based Load Balanced Clustering Algorithm for WSN

Abstract

The prevalent applications of WSN have fascinated a plethora of research efforts. Sensor nodes have serious limitations such as battery lifetime, memory constraints, and computational capabilities. Clustering is an important method for maximizing the network lifetime. In clustering, a network is divided into virtual groups, and CHs send their data to the BS either directly or using multi-hop routing. CHs are some special nodes having more energy than normal nodes. In fact, these special nodes are also battery operated and consequently power constrained; thus, they play a vital role in network lifetime. Cluster formation is very important and improper design may cause overload. This paper presents a modified GA-based load balanced clustering (MGALBC) algorithm for WSN. It is better than GA-based load balanced clustering (GALBC) algorithm because it balances the load by considering the residual energy. The result shows that the proposed method is better than GALBC in terms of energy consumption, number of active sensor nodes and network life.