DACHER: An Energy-Saving Dynamic Region Cluster-Head Election Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) underpin numerous industrial Internet of Things (IoT) applications, yet their operational lifetime is severely curtailed by the rapid emergence of energy holes around heavily loaded nodes. To address this critical issue, we present DACHER—a Dynamic Area Cluster Head Election Routing Protocol that equalizes network-wide energy consumption through three mutually reinforcing mechanisms. Spatially, ring-based partitioning stratifies the network into concentric annuli to radially distribute load. An energy-aware periodic rotation scheme temporarily reallocates the cluster-head (CH) burden according to residual energy E<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">j</sub> and rotation angle β, pre-empting hot-spot formation. For routing, relay-assisted chained forwarding replaces energy-intensive, long-haul transmissions with efficient, short-range multi-hop links, markedly reducing the communication cost for distant CHs. The synergy of these spatial, temporal, and routing strategies extends both the Stability Period Length (SPL) and Last Node Death (LND) lifetime. Comprehensive simulations on networks of 200–1000 uniformly distributed nodes validate our approach. At the 1000-node scale, DACHER achieves an average LND of 1655 ± 49 rounds (95% CI: 1553–1757) and prolongs the SPL by 96–516 rounds, outperforming contemporary protocols like WLEACH-CK, LAR-CH, LBR-GWO, and CER-CH by 5%–29%. These gains translate into lower per-round control overhead and higher overall energy efficiency. Altogether, DACHER provides a lightweight, scalable solution that substantially extends the longevity of large-scale WSNs composed of stationary, energy-homogeneous nodes without sacrificing algorithmic simplicity.