This paper presents an energy-efficient communication protocol which distributes a uniform energy load to the sensors in a wireless microsensor network. This protocol, called Energy and Distance-Based Clustering (EDBC), our protocol considers both the residual energy of sensor nodes and the distance of each node from the BS when selecting cluster-head. This protocol can successfully prolong the network's lifetime by 1) reducing the total energy dissipation on the network and 2) evenly distributing energy consumption over all sensor nodes. In this protocol, the nodes with more energy and less distance from the BS are probable to be selected as cluster-head. Simulation results with MATLAB show that proposed protocol could increase the lifetime of network more than 94% for first node die (FND), and more than 12% for the half of the nodes alive (HNA) factor as compared with conventional protocols.