Unequal Clustering Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks—Taxonomy, Comparison and Simulation

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of randomly distributed sensor nodes which can collect, process, route and transmit data from their respective environment. Most of the research on WSN is oriented towards optimizing utilization of finite resources of Sensor Nodes to increase the overall network operative time. Recent literature on WSNs reveals that hierarchical routing unequal clustering methodologies are gaining popularity due to energy efficiency, load balancing and scalability. In literature, numerous surveys on clustering methodologies are available which address different equal clustering methods. The unequal clustering protocols, which have their own attributes viz. balance load distribution, hot spot mitigation and energy efficiency, are comparatively less explored. This motivated us to undertake the present study on the taxonomy, comparison and simulation analysis of different methodologies pertaining to less explored unequal clustering protocols. Our base metrics for comparison of different unequal clustering protocols are scalability, energy efficiency & load balancing capability of the resulting network. A comprehensive discussion has also been presented to highlight the various advantages and disadvantages of different unequal clustering protocols. Further, we have summarized the study of unequal clustering protocols in the tabular form.