On the basis of current multiple hop router in wireless sensor networks

an unequal clustering algorithm with the minimum communication costs is proposed

which uses a time-based strategy to select a node with higher residual energy as the cluster-head

selects the route with minimum communication costs to communicate among clusters or within clusters

according to the residual energy of cluster-head and the distance from Sink node to control the cluster scale

and avoids data sent back again from the far by controlling the flood speed and node joining the cluster with least communication costs to Sink node for the first priority.Simulation experimental results show that the algorithm can control the establishment of clustering structure effectively

the energy can be used more efficiently

and the network can has longer lifetime.