An Enhanced HEED Clustering Algorithm for Increased Reliability and Network Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks
Received: 25 July 2025 | Revised: 21 August 2025 | Accepted: 30 August 2025 | Online: 3 August 2025
Corresponding author: Amit
Abstract
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are utilized in several modern applications, however, their exploration suffers from the limited energy resources of the sensor nodes, directly affecting network's lifetime. Energy-efficient routing and clustering protocols are important for solving this problem. In this paper, an enhanced Hybrid Energy-Efficient Distributed protocol with a Vice Cluster Head (HEED-VCH) is proposed to increase the lifetime, reliability, and stability of WSNs. The novel Vice Cluster Head (VCH) mechanism introduces a secondary leader within each cluster to monitor and take over duties seamlessly in the event of a primary Cluster Head (CH) failure, thereby significantly improving fault tolerance over traditional clustering methods. HEED-VCH extends the HEED protocol by incorporating this hierarchical stage, which balances the energy consumption across the network, reduces energy-intensive re-clustering, and enhances reliability by providing an immediate backup path for data aggregation and transmission when the main CH fails. Comparative analysis among HEED-VCH, LEACH, DEEC, and EECB protocols demonstrated that HEED-VCH outperformed the others in residual energy. At 500 rounds, it retained approximately 70%, which was significantly higher than LEACH (50%), DEEC (36%), and EECB (56%). While benchmark protocols exhaust their entire 50 J network energy between 800 and 1200 rounds, HEED-VCH retains considerable residual energy (34%, 24%, and 15%, respectively), indicating prolonged network operation and reduced energy depletion. These results establish the HEED-VCH as a most energy-efficient protocol with enhanced fault tolerance.
Keywords:
WSNs, HEED, vice cluster head, energy efficiency, reliability, network lifetimeDownloads
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