Unequal clustering algorithm with IDA* multi-hop routing to prevent hot spot problem in WSNs

Energy conservation techniques are considered as the primary means of lengthening the lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Clustering is a useful technique that achieves long-term operation of the network. Cluster heads that are near the base station are expected to die early because they are responsible for collecting data that comes from far away in addition to their own data, thereby leading to problem of hot spot in the WSN. This paper presents a new protocol that uses an unequal clustering algorithm with an IDA* routing method to address the hot spot problem. The base station divides the network into three levels of unequal sizes of clusters. The base station takes into consideration the energy level and the distance from the base station for cluster-head selection in each cluster. The cluster head will be changed based on the energy threshold for each cluster. The proposed method uses an IDA* algorithm for efficient multi-hop routing in the network. The uneven clustering algorithm reduces the energy consumption of the nodes, thereby minimising the hot spot problem. The obtained simulation results prove that our approach increases the load balancing, improves the stability and prolongs the network lifetime compared with other related approaches.