Performance analysis of LEACH routing protocol in wireless sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks, since the first moment they were developed, emerged as a techonology that was quickly adapted and used for it’s benefits. A Wireless Sensor Network consists of a network of nodes that are used to communicate the information between with each other. Wireless Sensor Networks are considered as one of the key technologies of the 21st century. Sensors are used for important application in different fields like military, bio-medical application, environmental monitoring, weather, seismic detection, smart spaces and process monitoring. The sensor nodes have some constraints due to their limited energy, storage capacity and computing power. Wireless sensor networks have explored to many new protocols specifically designed for sensor networks where energy is an important issue. This paper analyses the performance of LEACH protocol taking in consideration various specifications. LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy), a clustering-based protocol that utilizes randomized rotation of local cluster base stations (cluster-heads) to evenly distribute the energy load among the sensors in the network. LEACH uses localized coordination to enable scalability for dynamic networks, and incorporates data fusion into the routing protocol to reduce the amount of information that must be transmitted to the base station. LEACH includes distributed cluster formation, local processing to reduce global communication, and randomized rotation of the cluster-heads. Together, these features allow LEACH to achieve the desired properties.