A Survey of Advanced LEACH-based Protocols

Abstract

In recent years, wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have been utilized widely. Clustering is one of the methods for applying these networks energy-efficiently. In this field, many protocols have been introduced. LEACH is one of the most important clustering protocols which has attracted the attention of researchers. Therefore, prior studies have endeavored to improve it through removing some of disadvantages. As the result, many protocols have been developed during the recent years. In this paper, less studied protocols are investigated and compared with regard to different criteria such as cluster count, homogeneity or heterogeneity level, multi-levels attributes, the role of cluster head cycle, inter-cluster and intra-cluster connectivity.