Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have captivated substantial attention from both industrial and academic research in the last few years. The major factor behind the research efforts in that field is their vast range of applications which include surveillance systems, military operations, health care, environment event monitoring, and human safety. However, sensor nodes are low potential and energy constrained devices; therefore, energy-efficient routing protocol is the foremost concern. In this paper, an energy-efficient routing protocol for wireless sensor networks is proposed. Our protocol consists of a routing algorithm for the transmission of data, cluster head selection algorithm, and a scheme for the formation of clusters. On the basis of energy analysis of the existing routing protocols, a multistage data transmission mechanism is proposed. An efficient cluster head selection algorithm is adopted and unnecessary frequency of reclustering is exterminated. Static clustering is used for efficient selection of cluster heads. The performance and energy efficiency of our proposed routing protocol are assessed by the comparison of the existing routing protocols on a simulation platform. On the basis of simulation results, it is observed that our proposed routing protocol (EE-MRP) has performed well in terms of overall network lifetime, throughput, and energy efficiency.
EE-MRP: Energy-Efficient Multistage Routing Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks