RDSC: Range-Based Device Spatial Clustering for IoT Networks

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) has become a crucial area of modern research. While the increasing number of IoT devices has driven significant advancements, it has also introduced several challenges, such as data storage, data privacy, communication protocols, complex network topologies, and IoT device management. In essence, the management of IoT devices is becoming more and more challenging, especially with the limited capacity and power of the IoT devices. The devices, having limited capacities, cannot store the information of the entire environment at once. In addition, device power consumption can affect network performance and stability. The devices' sensing areas with device grouping and management can simplify further networking tasks and improve response quality with data aggregation and correction techniques. In fact, most research papers are looking forward to expanding network lifetimes by relying on devices with high power capabilities. This paper proposes a device spatial clustering technique that covers crucial challenges in IoT. Our approach groups the dispersed devices to create clusters of connected devices while considering their coverage, their storage capacities, and their power. A new clustering protocol alongside a new clustering algorithm is introduced, resolving the aforementioned challenges. Moreover, a technique for non-sensed area extraction is presented. The efficiency of the proposed approach has been evaluated with extensive experiments that gave notable results. Our technique was also compared with other clustering algorithms, showing the different results of these algorithms.