Relay Node Employment for Performance Enhancement of MEDC in Wireless Sensor Network

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a combination of various small size processing units called sensors. Sensors are deployed over a region to monitor the environment and other happenings. Sensors sense the environmental situations and communicate the sensor data to nearby nodes or base stations. Sensor’s energy keeps on depleting due to their multiple functionalities like sensing, aggregating of received data and communication with neighbor nodes. Energy constraint is one of the vital challenges for sensor nodes as they are majorly operational in unreachable locations with non-replaceable power resources. Various techniques have been implemented to overcome the challenge of limited power resources. Clustering is one of the techniques that facilitate to prolong the network lifetime through effective utilization of energy resources. Numerous clustering protocols have been implemented based on various parameters. Mutual Exclusive Distributive Clustering (MEDC) is one of the distributed clustering protocols that elect the cluster head based on residual energy. Selected cluster head performs the dual functionality i.e. combining the collected data and sending the same to the base station. This paper present the proposed algorithm which employed relay nodes in MEDC to distribute the load of cluster head and the distribution would lead to further enhance the network lifetime of WSN.