Lifetime Enhancement of WSN Based on Improved LEACH with Cluster Head Alternative Gateway

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a self-configured network of light-weight nodes, that are used in many applications by sending their data through this network to a Base Station (BS), which in turn, delivers the data to its final destination. In WSN, the sensor node’s energy is usually limited, and thus, the overall power consumption of the network is a real challenge. Numerous methods have been proposed to overcome this challenge by improving the overall power consumption and thus, prolonging the lifetime of the network. Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH) protocol has been considered as a leading routing protocol in WSN, due to its low power consumption resultant from its cluster-based behavior. However, for dense networks, LEACH suffers from large burden over cluster head (CH), which might result in packet loss due to the induced congestion in the CH. In this paper, an improved algorithm based on LEACH is proposed to maximize the lifetime of WSN, by using another node to relieve CH’s burden. The routing path selection process is refined through selecting a new node that has the highest residual energy in each cluster to be an alternative gateway for the cluster head. Then, the routing path will be decided based on distance. This modified algorithm outperforms the original LEACH by 4.35% increase in the residual energy, which prolongs the network lifetime. However, there is a slight increase in the overhead ratio.