Hierarchical and clustering WSN models: Their requirements for complex applications

Abstract

Generally, WSN consists of thousands of inexpensive devices, called sensor nodes, capable of computation, communication and sensing events in a specific environment [1–3]. WSNs have attracted intensive interest from both academia and industry due to their wide application in civil and military scenarios [4–6]. Enormous advances that are emerging in WSNs act as a revolution in all aspects of our life. WSNs have unique specifications describe it and different from other networks. Sensor nodes have energy and computational challenges. Moreover, WSNs may be prone to software failure, unreliable wireless connections, malicious attacks, and hardware faults; that make the network performance may degrade significantly over time. Recently, there is a great interest related to routing process in WSNs using intelligent and machine learning algorithms such as Genetic Algorithms [7–9]. Security aspects in routing protocols have not been given enough attention, since most of the routing protocols in WSNs have not been designed with security requirements in mind [10–14]. In this chapter, the main models of WSN with their advantages and limitations are discussed, specially the clustering model. In addition, it provides a literature of the existing clustering methods of WSN that aims to increase the network lifetime. After that, the security aspects are explained in details. Finally, the existing secure clustering methods are discussed and evaluated based on a set of criteria.