Modified VIKOR based distributed clustering scheme for wireless sensor networks

Stability and lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) mainly depend on energy of each node in the network. Hence, it is necessary for a WSN to be energy efferent. There are different methods to preserve energy in WSNs and clustering is one of those methods. Clustering techniques divide whole network into small blocks, each having a managing node, called cluster head (CH) and rest of the nodes within that block act as members. In this paper, we propose a distributed clustering scheme, called Modified VIKOR model based Clustering (MVC) protocol. This technique uses multiple criteria i.e. residual energy, node degree, distance to the base station and average distance between a node and its neighbors, to select a cluster head. Each node shares those parameters within its transmission range and decides which CH is suitable within that region. Modified VIKOR method is used to outrank the potential nodes as CHs by considering the conflicting criteria. The realistic multi-hoping communication model is used in both, inter-cluster and intra-cluster communication, instead of single hop as in previous schemes. Simulation results show that our purposed technique performs much better than those previous methods in terms of energy efficiency, network life time, less CH deformation and control overhead.