Weighted Cluster Routing Protocol with Redundant Cluster Head for Damaged WSN

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists of sensor nodes widely dispersed in predefined geographical fields. These sensors might be used for continuous monitoring such as temperature monitoring or might be used for event triggers such as when the temperature exceeds a certain threshold an alarm should be fired. The sensors in WSN communicate wirelessly with a target to transmit the sensed data to the base station. The base station will upload the data to the internet to be analyzed in the control station. One of the most efficient routing mechanisms is clustering. Clustering splits the network into clusters with cluster head assignment to each cluster. The cluster head is responsible for all intra-cluster communication. In a crisis case scenario, one or more sensors might be non-functional. In case the cluster head is non-functional then the whole cluster will be disconnected. This paper proposes a new weighted cluster routing protocol for WSN network. In a crisis scenario, the proposed protocol ensures an end-to-end connection by selecting a redundant cluster head also known as a secondary cluster head. The secondary cluster head will take over the role of the primary cluster head in case it is non-functional. Using MATLAB, a simulation for the proposed protocol is carried. It studies the effect of variant variables on cluster formation, primary cluster head selection, and secondary cluster head selection.