An Investigation of Clustering Algorithms in Wireless Sensor Networks for Energy Minimization

Wireless sensor networks allow distributed sensing and forwarding of data co-operatively during energy efficient operations. Sensor nodes in this network are small and inexpensive, so that they can be produced and deployed in large numbers, and so their resources in terms of energy, memory, computational speed and bandwidth are severely constrained. The information processing algorithms in wireless sensor networks must also use reduced computing power of the sensor networks Critical resource limitations like power constraints demands energy efficient data gathering schemes. Data aggregation, eliminating data redundancy is an efficient data gathering scheme. Cluster analysis, primitive exploration with little or no prior knowledge is an efficient data aggregation scheme. By sending the sink clustered data instead of practical ones, the algorithm can greatly reduce the size and the time of data communication, and further save the energy of the nodes in the network and prolong the system lifetime. This paper provides a more detailed look at some of the existing data clustering algorithms used in wireless sensor networks.