Majority Decision Aggregation with Binarized Data in Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are the cornerstone of the current Internet of Things era. They have limited resources and features, a smaller packet size than other types of networks, and dynamic multi-hop transmission. WSNs can monitor a particular area of interest and are used in many different applications. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, WSNs have been used to measure social distancing/contact tracing among people. However, the major challenge faced by WSN protocols is limited battery energy. Therefore, the whole WSN area is divided into odd clusters using k-means++ clustering to make a majority rule decision to reduce the amount of additional data sent to the base station (or sink) and achieve node energy-saving efficiency. This study proposes an energy-efficient binarized data aggregation (EEBDA) scheme, by which, through a threshold value, the collected sensing data are asserted with binary values. Subsequently, the corresponding cluster head (CH), according to the Hamming weight and the final majority decision, is calculated and sent to the base station (BS). The EEBDA is based on each cluster and divides the entire WSN area into four quadrants. All CHs construct a data-relay transmission link in the same quadrant; the binary value is transferred from the CHs to the sink. The EEBDA adopts a CH rotation scheme to aggregate the data based on the majority results in the cluster. The simulation results demonstrate that the EEBDA can reduce redundant data transmissions, average the energy consumption of nodes in the cluster, and obtain a better network lifetime when compared to the LEACH, LEACH-C, and DEEC algorithms.