Performance Evaluation of Cluster Head Selection Algorithm for Heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks

In this article, an Improved Energy-Efficient Cluster Head Selection (IEECHS) algorithm for implementation in heterogeneous Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is proposed. The IEECHS algorithm addresses the key issues of energy-efficiency and security, and combines the rotation-based clustering and energy-saving mechanisms to enhance network performance and prolong the WSN’s lifetime. For the heterogeneous network model, using the Full Duplex (FD) features of nodes and cutthrough mechanism, a FD Medium Access Control Protocol (FDMAC) is implemented, which (i) is a contention window-based mechanism for collision detection, and (ii) provides channel access prioritization to different traffic classes. To evaluate IEECHS performance, simulation experiments are conducted considering key performance metrics viz., throughput, energy consumption, and packet delivery ratio. The results demonstrate that through IEECHS, after the completion of 10,000 iterations, the energy depletion rate lowers thereby, resulting in increased network lifetime and higher stored energy.