DYNACEEP: A Dynamic and Energy-Efficient Clustering Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks with Mobile Base Station

Collecting data by balancing energy consumption in wireless sensor networks (WSN) is an important problem for which energy-aware cluster-based routing protocols with mobile sinks have been proposed especially for the last decade. Our primary objective is to address uneven energy depletion - an issue where a few nodes bear most of the communication load and being depleted early, causing network partitioning. To overcome this problem, we present dynamic and energy-efficient clustering protocol (DYNACEEP) for wireless sensor networks with a mobile base station. DYNACEEP integrates adaptive cluster-head (CH) election, load-aware clustering, Time-To-Live (TTL)-based packet management, and periodic base station mobility. CHs are selected by using a composite fitness metric based on normalized residual energy, proximity to the base station, and local node density. Ordinary nodes join clusters through a two-pass mechanism: prioritizing nearby, high-energy CHs and fallback assignments for outliers. Energy-aware data transmission probabilities prevent low-energy nodes from premature depletion. A hybrid CH-to-CH multi-hop and direct BS delivery mechanism, regulated by TTL and retry counts, ensures reliable packet forwarding. Over 1,000 rounds of MATLAB simulations, DYNACEEP achieved a Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) exceeding 84%, with nearly complete energy utilization and robust operation until the final rounds. Our results demonstrate that DYNACEEP offers a practical and scalable solution for sustainable communication in next-generation WSNs targeting 5G/6G IoT deployments.