Abstract
Recently, researchers and practitioners in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are focusing on energy-oriented communication and computing considering next-generation smaller and tiny wireless devices. The tiny sensor-enabled devices will be used for the purpose of sensing, computing, and wireless communication. The hundreds/thousands of WSNs sensors are used to monitor specific activities and report events via wireless communication. The tiny sensor-enabled devices are powered by smaller batteries to work independently in distributed environments resulting in limited maximum lifetime of the network constituted by these devices. Considering the non-uniform distribution of sensor-enabled devices in the next-generation mobility centric WSNs environments, energy consumption is imbalanced among the different sensors in the overall network environments. Toward this end, in this paper, a cluster-oriented routing protocol termed as prediction-oriented distributed clustering (PODC) mechanism is proposed for WSNs focusing on non-uniform sensor distribution in the network. A network model is presented, while categorizing PODC mechanism in two activities including setting cluster of nodes and the activity in the steady state. Further cluster set up activity is described while categorizing in four subcategories. The proposed protocol is compared with individual sensor energy awareness and distributed networking mode of clustering (EADC) and scheduled sensor activity-based individual sensor energy awareness and distributed networking mode of clustering (SA-ADC). The metrics including the overall lifetime of the network and nodes individual energy consumption in realistic next-generation WSNs environments are considered in the experimental evaluation. The results attest the reduced energy consumption centric benefits of the proposed framework PODC as compared to the literature. Therefore, the framework will be more applicable for the smart product development in the next-generation WSNs environments.