  In order to gather information more efficiently, wireless sensor networks are
partitioned into clusters. The most of the proposed clustering algorithms do
not consider the location of the base station. This situation causes hot spots
problem in multi-hop wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose a
fuzzy clustering algorithm (FCA) which aims to prolong the lifetime of wireless
sensor networks. FCA adjusts the cluster-head radius considering the residual
energy and the distance to the base station parameters of the sensor nodes.
This helps decreasing the intra-cluster work of the sensor nodes which are
closer to the base station or have lower battery level. We utilize fuzzy logic
for handling the uncertainties in cluster-head radius estimation. We compare
our algorithm with LEACH according to first node dies, half of the nodes alive
and energy-efficiency metrics. Our simulation results show that FCA performs
better than other algorithms in most of the cases. Therefore, our proposed
algorithm is a stable and energy-efficient clustering algorithm.
