Proper

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Network is the network of power-limited sensing devices called sensors. When these sensors sense and transmit data to other sensors present in the network, considerable amount of energy is dissipated. Various routing algorithms have already been proposed to limit the powers used by the wireless sensors. Hierarchical routing protocols with the concept of clustering like LEACH and SEP are best known for maintaining energy efficiency. In this paper, we have proposed an ECC-SEP, a heterogeneous energy protocol which is an improvement over existing SEP protocol. In SEP, the clusters are formed randomly on the basis of threshold values; however, in this paper we have tried to reduce the number of clusters by merging nearby clusters. Hence, within a certain small geographic region, only one cluster is formed, which helps in overcoming redundancy over that region. Simulation results on MATLAB depicts that the our suggested protocol provides higher energy efficiency, better stability period and lower instability period as compared to LEACH and SEP protocols.