Performance Comparison of LEACH and LEACH-C Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) draw the attention of researchers due to the diversity of applications that use them. Basically, a WSN comprises many sensor nodes that are supplied with power by means of a small battery installed in the node itself; the node can also be self-charged by a solar cell. Sometimes it is impossible to change the power supply of battery-operated nodes. This dictates that sensor nodes must utilize the energy they have in an optimal manner. Data communication is the main cause of energy dissipation. In this context, designing protocols for WSNs demands more attention to the design of energy-efficient routing protocols that allow communications between sensor nodes and their base station (BS) with the least cost. LEACH is a prominent hierarchical cluster-based routing protocol. It groups sensor nodes into clusters to reduce energy dissipation. On the other hand, LEACH-C is a protocol based on LEACH that claims to improve energy dissipation over LEACH. In this paper, a successful attempt was made to compare these two protocols using MATLAB. The results show that LEACH-C has better performance than LEACH in terms of power dissipation.