An Energy-Efficient Clustering Routing Protocol Based on Evolutionary Game Theory in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

The features that sensor nodes are powered by battery and have severe energy constraint make the design of energy-efficient protocol a key task for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Clustering protocols significantly cut down the energy expenditure of each sensor node. However, hot spots problem occurs in locations close to the sink. Besides, it makes things worse if the nodes with less energy are selected as cluster heads (CHs), because they are often loaded heavier traffic than cluster members (CMs) due to their duty. The issues which exist in WSNs are proposed and the primary reason why cluster head election is hard to control is then presented. A mathematical model aiming to ease the hot spots problem via optimizing the cluster size is proposed and an optimal cluster size (OCS) algorithm is given firstly. Subsequently, an evolutionary game model for the sensor nodes to terminate the anarchism during the process of cluster head selection is presented, and a novel routing protocol named Energy Efficient Routing protocol based on Evolutionary Game (EEREG) theory is proposed. Finally, extensive simulation experiments and performance comparisons with the well-known hierarchical routing protocols are conducted. The experiment results show that a significant improvement in energy efficiency as well as lifetime extension is achieved.