An Energy Efficient and Secure Clustering Protocol for Military based WSN

Less contiguous nature of military applications demands for surveillance of widespread areas that are indeed harder to monitor. Unlike traditional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), a military based large size sensor network possesses unique requirements/challenges in terms of self-configuration, coverage, connectivity and energy dissipation. Taking this aspect into consideration, this paper proposes a novel, efficient and secure clustering method for military based applications. In any clustering based approach, one of the prime concerns is appropriate selection of Cluster Heads and formation of balanced clusters. This paper proposes and analyzes two schemes, Average Energy based Clustering (AEC) and Threshold Energy based Clustering (TEC). In AEC, a node is elected as Cluster Head (CH) if its residual energy is above the average energy of its cluster whereas in case of TEC, a node is elected as Cluster Head if its residual energy is above the threshold energy. Further, both AEC and TEC choose nodes as CHs if their distance lies within safety zone of the Base Station. In this paper, aim is to come up with a solution that not only conserves energy but balance load while electing safe nodes as CHs. The performance of proposed protocols was critically evaluated in terms of network lifetime, average residual energy of nodes and uniformity in energy dissipation of nodes. Results clearly demonstrated that AEC is successful in incorporating security whilst increasing overall lifetime of network, load balance and uniform energy dissipation.