Abstract: In wireless sensor networks topology control (TC), cell based TC algorithms have been recognized as a type of methods which could conserve nodes' energy and extend network lifetime. However, they require too many backbone nodes and can't guarantee connectivity. By investigating the limitations of these algorithms, a 1-con method is proposed: when a cell head is connected into the current backbone, all cells that could be reached by this head will be connected to the topology structure through it, and then the new backbone expands itself recursively in this way. By leveraging the 1-con method, a connectible-cell based topology control algorithm (CCTC) is designed. It could be theoretically proved that 1) CCTC could guarantee the network connectivity; and 2) In every round, CCTC needs fewer active nodes than other algorithms do. The computing complexity of CCTC is linear; and the storage space and the message amount are bounded by constant magnitude. Simulation results also validate that CCTC provides impressive energy conservation and longer network lifetime with decent robustness and limited control overheads.