EARDC: Energy-Aware Reaction-Diffusion-Based Clustering for Area Coverage in Wireless Sensor Networks

Energy-efficient clustering extends the lifetime of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Conventional protocols such as LEACH and HEED primarily address communication energy and cluster head (CH) selection rather than area coverage under random deployment. C3 considers coverage and redundancy without node coordinates; however, its virtual-ring reconfiguration is initiated by a sink or reference node. In this paper, we propose Energy-Aware Reaction-Diffusion Clustering (EARDC), a self-organizing, coordinate-free, and decentralized framework for energy-efficient area coverage in randomly deployed WSNs. EARDC determines CH formation, cluster membership, and temporary sleep states from information exchanged among one-hop neighbors. It requires neither exact node coordinates, sink-initiated reconfiguration, nor network-wide coverage information computed at the base station. A residual-energy-scaled activator-inhibitor update supports self-organized CH selection, and local membership control determines the active sensing set from selected CHs and accepted members. Other non-CH nodes sleep until the next scheduled clustering epoch. Analytical approximations for active-node density and coverage are evaluated against run-level simulation measurements to assess their accuracy and limitations. Simulations at three deployment densities characterize the tradeoff among network lifetime, coverage retention, active participation, and sensing redundancy. EARDC provides longer network lifetime and a smaller active fraction than LEACH, HEED, and WIFN. C3 provides stronger redundancy suppression. In the dense deployment, the lifetime-maximizing EARDC setting has shorter coverage retention than C3 but a longer coverage-bounded lifetime. These results show that network lifetime and sustained area coverage represent distinct performance objectives.