Int. j. inf. tecnol.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41870-020-00419-7

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Energy efficient intra-cluster data aggregation technique

for wireless sensor network
Anupkumar M. Bongale1 • C. R. Nirmala2 • Arunkumar M. Bongale3

Received: 23 September 2018 / Accepted: 31 July 2019

Ó Bharati Vidyapeeth’s Institute of Computer Applications and Management 2020

Abstract Cluster based routing strategies are popular
categories of routing protocols among wireless sensor
networks (WSNs). In a typical cluster based routing pro-
tocols, few nodes are elected as cluster Head (CH) nodes
and they form clusters with other nodes of the networks
known as cluster members. The data sensed by cluster
members is sent to CH node for data aggregation and
further processing. Data Aggregation is considered to be
one of the important methods used to prolong the network
lifetime of WSN. Data aggregation is quite popular among
cluster based routing protocols for WSN, where the data
packets are aggregated by intermediate nodes till it reaches
to BS. Data aggregation ultimately helps in reducing the
number of data messages thereby assisting in network life
prolongation. In this paper, an intra-cluster data aggrega-
tion technique (ICA) for WSNs is proposed. ICA constructs
the intra cluster data aggregation path from a source node
to its CH node in an energy efficient way. The data packets
are aggregated along the aggregation path by intermediate
relay nodes till the message reaches to designated CH
node. Comparative analysis of ICA, LEACH and LEACH-
C protocols are carried by considering the parameters such
& Anupkumar M. Bongale
ambongale@gmail.com
1
Department of Computer Science and Information
Technology, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Symbiosis
International (Deemed University), Lavale, Pune,
Maharashtra, India
2
Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Bapuji
Institute of Engineering and Technology, Davangere,
Karnataka, India
3 are various opportunities such as better node deployment
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Symbiosis Institute
of Technology, Symbiosis International (Deemed
University), Lavale, Pune, Maharashtra, India
as number of alive nodes, energy consumption, number of
data packets received by BS. Results obtained show that
ICA performs better compared to LEACH and LEACH-C
protocols.
Keywords Cluster head  Wireless sensor network 
Routing protocol  Data aggregation  Intra cluster
1 Introduction
A wireless sensor network (WSN) is formed by the net-
work of wireless sensor nodes. WSNs have found their
usage is various applications such as underwater wireless
sensor networks, body sensor networks, building monitor-
ing, wireless multimedia sensor networks, etc., [1]. Irre-
spective of kind of applications, the role of sensor nodes (or
simply called as nodes) is to sense some information of
interest that has to be monitored. A sensor node either
periodically or upon receiving a query transmits the sensed
data to data collection point called as base station (BS) or
sink node [2].
The sensor nodes jointly perform the activities such as
sensing information, communicating with one another and
with BS through wireless medium. To carry out such
activities, each sensor node requires energy, which is
supplied by a non-replaceable battery. The practical prob-
lem of WSNs is that the nodes are equipped with limited
power supply and it is not feasible to replace the battery
every now and then. Hence, the major research work
revolving around WSNs is design of energy efficient pro-
tocols that help in prolonging the network lifetime. There
strategies, data aggregation schemes, designing efficient

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routing protocols, through which energy efficiency could
be achieved [2].
Every node consumes some amount of energy while
processing, sensing, receiving and transmitting data. Out of
all, data transmission consumes comparatively larger
energy than others. Cluster based routing techniques are
best way for controlling the data transmissions [1–3]. In
cluster based routing techniques, few nodes are elected as
cluster head (CH) and they form clusters with other nodes
of the network. The members of cluster send the data to
their CH node and CH node further transmits combined
data to BS. The process of combining data is called data
aggregation. The data collected by group of sensor nodes in
the sensor field are spatially correlated and hence there is a
high probability that sensed data has some redundancy.
Hence, cluster based routing protocols with data aggrega-
tion strategies are best way of prolonging the network
lifetime [4]. Therefore, in this paper, an intra-cluster based
data aggregation scheme is proposed.
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
explains most recent updates on LEACH protocol and
other data aggregation protocols for WSNs. Assumptions
and network model used are mentioned in Sect. 3. Pro-
posed intra-cluster data aggregation technique is explained
in Sect. 4. Results are discussed in Sect. 5. Section 6
concludes the paper.
2 Related work
Cluster based routing strategies involving data aggregation
have attracted many researchers of WSNs community.
Most prominent and so called legacy protocol is low-en-
ergy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) [5, 6].
LEACH is cluster based hierarchical routing protocol
popularly known for its probabilistic threshold based
cluster head election strategy and in-network data aggre-
gation schemes. Over the last decade LEACH protocol is
improved with reference to various aspects such as better
CH election methods, inter cluster routing, refined data
aggregation approaches, etc. Most of such variants of
LEACH protocol are reviewed in [3]. In this section, a brief
review of existing data aggregation methods is presented.
An efficient data gathering solution termed as Band-
width Efficient Heterogeneity aware cluster based data
aggregation (BHCDA) is proposed by Mantri et al. [7]. The
algorithm works in three different phases namely CH
election phase, aggregation phase and forwarding phase. In
the second phase, all elected CH nodes of the network
aggregate the data within their cluster. In third phase, each
CH itself acts as an individual node and forward the data to
next CH node till the aggregated data reaches to BS.
Advantages of such aggregation schemes were found to be
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Int. j. inf. tecnol.
reduced packet count and transmission cost. Sinha et al. [8]
have proposed a novel data fusion technique and cluster
formation method for WSNs. Periodic sampling of sensor
data leads to generation of huge raw data and hence authors
have used data aggregation on the basis of entropy of the
sensors to extend the power of sensor nodes. It is also
presented that clustering also helped in prolonging network
lifetime. Another cluster based data aggregation
scheme through balanced architecture based on hexagonal
clusters is presented in [9]. Here, CH node aggregates data
of the cluster members and forwards to BS.
There are few articles that show the use of mobile agents
for performing data aggregation in WSNs. Lohani and
Varma [10] have proposed a dynamic mobile agent based
data aggregation approach that takes into consideration of
energy efficiency, network lifetime, end to end delay and
aggregation ration while making the decision for migration
of agent in multi hop sensor network. Another work pre-
sented in [11] uses mobiles agents to aggregate and route
the collected data of WSNs. Authors have proposed a
protocol called as zone-based mobile agent aggregation.
The uniqueness of the protocol is that the mobile agents
begin to collect the data from the point where events are
occurring and move towards the sink node. Such an
approach helped in minimizing the mobile agent journey
cost and also helped in enhancing aggregation accuracy.
Xu et al. [12] have proposed maximum-lifetime data
aggregation with cooperative communication (MLDAC).
The concept of cooperative communication represents a
framework where transmitting nodes can cooperatively
aggregate the raw data and send to BS. Here, authors have
contributed a novel method of pairing nodes in an energy
efficient manner. The paired nodes aggregate the data and
forward further to necessary destination. This approach
helped in improvement of network lifetime.
In some of the articles, data aggregation is considered as
multi-objective optimization problem. There are few
methods which have used branch of artificial intelligence
for providing better data aggregation solutions. Lu et al.
[13] used multi-objectives for constructing data aggrega-
tion tree through jump particle swarm optimization.
Authors have focused on optimizing the objectives such as
minimizing total energy consumption of aggregation tree
and maximizing the network lifetime of tree. Such objec-
tives are fulfilled when first relay node of tree fails, entire
tree construction process starts again. So that node failures
will not affect the performance of network lifetime. Ant
Colony Optimization is another metaheuristic method used
identifying for relay node of data aggregation path pro-
posed by Lin et al. [14]. While transmitting data, a node
estimates the remaining energy and pheromone level of
neighbour nodes and wisely selects the next hop aggregator
node. Rajesh and Paramasivan have proposed fuzzy based
Int. j. inf. tecnol.

secure data aggregation technique to select the secure and
non-faulty node members for data aggregation in [15].
There are sufficient number of articles belonging to
unique data aggregation schemes for WSNs. [16, 17] are
survey articles on data aggregation techniques for WSNs.
From the literature survey, it is observed that most of the
articles focus on inter cluster aggregation and few focus on
intra cluster data aggregation. In this paper, an intra-cluster
data aggregation method with special emphasis on multi
hop aggregation is proposed. Further sections explain
proposed data aggregation scheme.
3 Assumptions and network model
3.1 Assumptions
The presented work is carried out under following
assumptions. Network model and assumptions are similar
to [5, 6].
– All nodes are randomly dispersed in simulation area.
– Position of all nodes including BS are fixed.
– All nodes are homogeneous i.e., initial energy of each
node is 2 J.
– BS is assumed to be equipped with surplus power
supply.
– Nodes are able to sense data, transmit and receive data
to and from other nodes within their respective
transmission range.
3.2 Network model
In this paper, we have considered well known free space
and multipath channel radio propagation models as
described in [5, 6]. The corresponding models are used
depending upon the distance between the receiver and
transmitter. Multipath fading model is used if the distance
is grater than or equal to threshold distance ðdthresh Þ or else
free space model is used. To transmit r-bit of message the
transmitter of node requires energy ðEtr Þ and is calculated
as per the Eq. (1).
(
r  Eele þ r  efs  d2 if d\dthresh
Etr ðr; dÞ ¼ ð1Þ
r  Eele þ r  emp  d4 if d  dthresh
To receive r-bit of message the receiver requires energy
ðErc Þ and is calculated as per the Eq. (2).
Erc ðr; dÞ ¼ r  Eele ð2Þ

Where Eele represents the electronic energy and it depends

upon the factors such as digital coding, modulation, fil-
tering and spreading of the signal,
 2
  4

r  efs  d and r  emp  d represents the amplifier
energy and depends upon distance to receiver and accept-
able bit-error rate.

Table 1 Simulation parameters

Simulation parameters Values

Number nodes 100, 200

Simulation area 250  250 m2
Network energy 2  100 ¼ 200 J
Scenario#1 Grid topology and BS at (125, 125)
Scenario#2 Grid topology and BS at (125, 300)
Scenario#3 Random topology and BS at (125, 125)
Scenario#4 Random topology and BS at (125, 300)
Eelec 50 nJ=bit
efs 10 pJ=bit=m2
emp 0:0013 pJ=bit=m4

Fig. 1 Flowchart of proposed protocol

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110 LEACH
100 LEACH-C
100 LEACH ICA
LEACH-C
90 ICA
80
80

Number of Alive Nodes

Number of Alive Nodes

70
60
60

50

40 40

30

20 20

10

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400
Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)
(a) Scene#1 (b) Scene#2

LEACH
100 LEACH-C LEACH
ICA 100 LEACH-C
ICA

80
80
Number of Alive Nodes

Number of Alive Nodes

60 60

40 40

20 20

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 0 100 200 300 400 500
Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)
(c) Scene#3 (d) Scene#4
Fig. 2 Number of alive nodes over simulation period (100 Nodes)

4 Proposed protocol nodes are elected as CHs for the current round. T(n) is
calculated as per the Eq. (3) [5, 6].
In this paper, we are proposing an intra-cluster aggregation 8
< P
strategy for wireless sensor network. The proposed proto- ; n2G
TðnÞ ¼ 1  P  ½1 mod ð1=PÞ ð3Þ
col operates in rounds and each round consists of three :
0; otherwise
steps namely cluster formation stage, intra cluster aggre-
gation path construction, and data transmission phase. where P is number of CHs for the current round. As per the
First stage of the protocol is cluster formation phase. LEACH protocol, the value of P is 5% of total number of
Here, initially cluster head nodes are elected. The CH nodes. r is the round number, G is the number of nodes that
election process is similar to the one followed in LEACH are elected as CHs in the round r.
protocol [5, 6]. All the nodes of the network participate in After successful election of CHs for the current round,
head election process and to become CH, participated node cluster formation process begins. Here, each CH node
of the network generates a random number between 0 and broadcasts ADV message consisting of its node ID with
1. If the random number is below the threshold T(n), such header information. The non-cluster head nodes (also
called as normal nodes) receive the ADV message of CHs

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LEACH LEACH
LEACH-C 200 LEACH-C
200 ICA
ICA

Number of Alive Nodes

Number of Alive Nodes

150
150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)
(a) Scene#1 (b) Scene#2

LEACH LEACH
LEACH-C LEACH-C
200 ICA 200
ICA
Number of Alive Nodes

Number of Alive Nodes

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 200 400 600 800 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)
(c) Scene#3 (d) Scene#4
Fig. 3 Number of alive nodes over simulation period (200 Nodes)

of the network. Upon receiving ADV messages, a normal
node has option of either choosing a CH or choosing any
one of its neighbour nodes as the relay node. If the normal
node chooses CH node, our protocol works similar manner
to LEACH protocol otherwise, process of intra cluster data
aggregation path from the normal node to CH is initiated
via one or more relay nodes.
The choice of choosing either CH node or a relay node
is dependent upon distance and energy based parameters.
Intra cluster data aggregation path construction is the sec-
ond stage of the proposed protocol. Before a choosing CH
node, a normal node checks if there are any of its neigh-
bour nodes which are at much closer distance than the
designated CH node. A normal node chooses a relay node
from its neighbour node list which is having comparatively
larger residual energy among available neighbour nodes.
Third stage of proposed protocol is data transmission
phase where a normal node transmits data to its CH node
during the allotted TDMA slot. Normal node transmits its
sensed raw data to the relay node and relay aggregates the
received data with its sensed data further forwards the
aggregated data to CH node. The data aggregation process
described so far, takes place within the cluster. Thus, the
proposed protocol ensures that a normal node transmits its
sensed information to CH node either directly or indirectly
via one or more relay nodes. When the data packets are
transmitted via relay nodes, the total number of packets
processed at CH node are reduced and hence saves the
processing energy of CH node. Another advantage of the

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200 200

Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

150 150

100 100

LEACH LEACH
LEACH-C LEACH-C
ICA ICA
50 50
200 300 400 500 600 200 300 400 500

Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)

(a) Scene#1 (b) Scene#2

200
200

Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

150 150

100 100

LEACH
LEACH
LEACH-C
LEACH-C
ICA
ICA
50 50
200 300 400 500 600 700 200 300 400

Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)

(c) Scene#3 (d) Scene#4
Fig. 4 Energy consumption of network (100 Nodes)

proposed aggregation scheme is that it reduces the data received by BS. The simulations are carried out using NS
transmission distance from normal node to its CH node. 2.34 [18]. NS2 generates results in the form of text files and
The reduced transmission distance should obviously help in graphs are plotted using open source graphs plotting tool.
efficient energy utilization of normal nodes as well. All Details of the simulation parameters are mentioned in
three stages of the proposed protocol are mentioned in the Table 1. We have considered cases of 100 and 200 nodes
Fig. 1. dispersed over 250  250 m2 simulation area. To validate
the efficiency of ICA protocol, following scenarios are
considered.
5 Results
– Scenario#1 Nodes arranged in Grid Topology and BS is
situated at (125, 125) i.e. at centre of simulation area.
In this section, comparative analysis of proposed data
– Scenario#2 Nodes arranged in Grid Topology and BS is
aggregation scheme with LEACH and LEACH-C protocols
situated at (125, 300) i.e. out of the simulation area.
is described. To understand the efficiency of ICA, we have
– Scenario#3 Randomly located nodes and BS is situated
used prominent comparative parameters such as number of
at (125, 125) i.e. at centre of simulation area.
alive nodes, energy consumption, number of data packets

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400 400
Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

300 300

200 200

100 100

LEACH LEACH
LEACH-C LEACH-C
ICA ICA
0 0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700

Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)

(a) Scene#1 (b) Scene#2

400
400
Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

Energy Consumption of Network (Joules)

300
300

200 200

100 100

LEACH LEACH
LEACH-C LEACH-C
ICA ICA
0 0
0 200 400 600 800 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800

Simulation Time (Seconds) Simulation Time (Seconds)

(c) Scene#3 (d) Scene#4
Fig. 5 Energy consumption of network (200 Nodes)

– Scenario#4 Randomly located nodes and BS is situated 5.2 Average energy consumption
at (125, 300) i.e. out of the simulation area.
Figures 4a–d and 5a–d show the plot of average energy
consumption of all the mentioned network scenarios for
5.1 Number of alive nodes
100 and 200 nodes respectively. This parameter indicates
energy consumption pattern of network. Initially all the
Figures 2a–d and 3a–d show the plot of number of alive
nodes are equipped with full 2 J. Hence, the total energy of
nodes of all the mentioned network scenarios for 100 and
the network is 200 J for 100 nodes and 400 J for 200 nodes.
200 nodes respectively. The parameter ‘‘number of alive
As the simulation progresses all the nodes indulge in
nodes’’ represents the pattern of node deaths of the net-
clustering and data transmission process leading gradual
work. As observed from the Figs. 2a, b, d and 3a–d, ICA is
decline of network life. It can be observed from the fig-
able to prolong the network lifetime. But from the Fig. 2c it
ures that ICA keeps low profile in energy consumption
is found that LEACH-C is better than LEACH and ICA.
pattern than that of LEACH and LEACH-C protocols.
Hence, ICA is comparatively more energy efficient.

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80k 100k
Average Packets Received by Base Station

Average Packets Received by Base Station

70k 90k
LEACH LEACH
LEACH-C LEACH-C
ICA 80k ICA
60k
70k
50k
60k

40k 50k

30k 40k

30k
20k
20k
10k
10k

0 0
5)

0)
5)

0)

5)

0)
5)

0)
12

30
12

30

12

30
12

30
5,

5,
5,

5,

5,
5,
5,

5,
12
12

12
12

12
12
12
12
S:
S:

S:
S:

S:
S:
S:
S:
(B

(B
(B

(B

(B
(B

(B
(B
m

m
rid

rid

m
rid

rid
do

do

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do
G

G
an

an

an

an
R

R
Network Topology/Scenario Network Topology/Scenario
(a) 100 Nodes (b) 200 Nodes
Fig. 6 Average number of packets received by base station for Scenario#1, Scenario#2, Scenario#3 and Scenario#4

5.3 Average data packets received by BS at different locations. This helped us to understand the
strengths and weaknesses of ICA. We found that ICA pre-
Figure 6a and b show the plot of average number of data formed better in comparison with LEACH and LEACH-C
packets received by BS of all the mentioned network sce- protocol. But, in Scenario#3 for 100 nodes case, the nodes of
narios for 100 and 200 nodes respectively. It can be the network died soon for ICA when compared to LEACH
observed from the figure that the data received by BS for and LEACH-C. The performance of ICA protocol may
ICA protocol is less than that of other protocol in all the decline if there is no opportunity for intra cluster data
scenarios of Fig. 6 and data received by BS is more in case aggregation. This can happen because there may not be
of ICA for Scenario#1 and Scenario#4 of 200 nodes case. efficient relay node and source node directly sends the data to
The reason being that the data packets are aggregated by CH node. In the future, we will evaluate the performance of
relay nodes in most of rounds of ICA protocol and hence ICA protocol by increasing the number of nodes of the net-
number of packets received by BS should be comparatively work to 300 and 400 nodes.
low.

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