An Adaptive LEACH-based Clustering Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

LEACH is the most popular clastering algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). However, it has two main drawbacks, including random selection of cluster heads, and direct communication of cluster heads with the sink. This paper aims to introduce a new centralized cluster-based routing protocol named LEACH-AEC (LEACH with Adaptive Energy Consumption), which guarantees to generate balanced clusters over the network. In LEACH-AEC, more information from the current state of nodes (including the residual energy of nodes, the distance from sink, and the distances between cluster heads) are considered to select the optimal cluster heads. Also, the multi-hop routing extension via A-Star algorithm is utilized in LEACH-AEC to cope with routing in large topological WSN areas. In contrast to the previous cluster-based protocols, the main advantage of LEACH-AEC is to prolong the network lifetime, based on the application specifications. Simulation results show that the proposed routing protocol plays an effective role in reducing energy consumption, provides a balanced consumption of energy and increases the lifetime of the network.