Distributed hierarchical search for balanced energy consumption routing spanning trees in wireless sensor networks

We provide a new heuristic method approach to search for degree-balanced and small weight routing spanning trees in a network. The method is a modification of Kruskal’s minimum spanning tree search algorithm and is based on a distributed search by hierarchical clusters. It provides spanning trees with a lower maximum weighted degree, a bigger diameter, and can be used for balanced energy consumption routing in wireless sensor networks (WSN’s). The method can be naturally implemented in parallel or as a simple locally distributed algorithm. Simulations for a realistic case scenario WSN are done based on the transmission energy matrix. The simulation results show that the proposed approach can extend the functional lifetime of a WSN in terms of sensor transmission energy by 3–4 times. We also show that the results can be further improved by using a preliminary clustering of the input network.