An Enhanced HEED Clustering Algorithm for Increased Reliability and Network Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks

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.