We propose a novel cluster based cooperative spectrum sensing algorithm to save the wastage of energy, in which clusters are formed using fuzzy c-means (FCM) clustering and a cluster head (CH) is selected based on a sensor's location within each cluster, its location with respect to fusion center (FC), its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and its residual energy. The sensing information of a single sensor is not reliable enough due to shadowing and fading. To overcome these issues, cooperative spectrum sensing schemes were proposed to take advantage of spatial diversity. For cooperative spectrum sensing, all sensors sense the spectrum and report the sensed energy to FC for the final decision. However, it increases the energy consumption of the network when a large number of sensors need to cooperate; in addition to that, the efficiency of the network is also reduced. The proposed algorithm makes the cluster and selects the CHs such that very little amount of network energy is consumed and the highest efficiency of the network is achieved. Using the proposed algorithm maximum probability of detection under an imperfect channel is accomplished with minimum energy consumption as compared to conventional clustering schemes.
Keywords: clustering; energy efficiency; sensor networks.