Cross-layer design for determining the optimal number of clusters in a wireless sensor network

Abstract

The clustering concept can help a wireless sensor network establish hierarchy among numerous sensor nodes. Clustering architecture is essential in achieving the goal of saving power for wireless sensor networks because a cluster representative node can forward data to sink for the covered cluster area. One of key parameters in the clustering design is the number of clusters in a entire wireless sensor network. To this end, we suggest a cross-layer approach to determine an optimal number of clusters in an observation area from the perspectives of physical (PHY) layer, medium access control (MAC) sub-layer, scheduling (SCH) sublayer and network (NET) layer.