Ambient Assisted Living(AAL) is becoming an important research field. Many technologies have emerged related with pervasive computing vision, which can give support for AAL. One of the most reliable approaches is based on wireless sensor networks(WSNs). In this paper, we propose a coverage-aware unequal clustering protocol with load separation(CUCPLS) for data gathering of AAL applications based on WSNs. Firstly, the coverage overlap factor for nodes is introduced that accounts for the degree of target nodes covered. In addition, to balance the intra-cluster and inter-cluster energy consumptions, different competition radiuses of CHs are computed theoretically in different rings, and smaller clusters are formed near the sink. Moreover, two CHs are selected in each cluster for load separation to alleviate the substantial energy consumption difference between a single CH and its member nodes. Furthermore, a backoff waiting time is adopted during the selection of the two CHs to reduce the number of control messages employed. Simulation results demonstrate that the CUCPLS not only can achieve better coverage performance, but also balance the energy consumption of a network and prolong network lifetime.
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