Performance Evaluation of Hierarchical Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks Based on Energy Efficiency

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) can be defined as self-configured wireless networks consiting of spatially distributed sensors that monitor physical or environmental conditions, such as temperature, vibration, or pollutants; and cooperatively pass their data to a sink or base station. The WSNs have many applications such as: disaster relief operations, intelligent buildings, machine surveillance, medicine and health care. Despite the multiple benefits this technology offers, the quick depletion of sensors’ battery power represents a key concern, mainly due to the extensive computational tasks and communication operations performed by individual sensors. Indeed, the cost of replacing batteries can be extravagant, especially when sensors are deployed in areas difficult to access. Thus, the used routing algorithms need to be energy efficient. This paper presents a comparison of different routing protocols commonly used in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) based on energy efficiency. For that, we have selected four energy-efficient hierarchical routing for perfromance comprison namely: Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (LEACH), Modified Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy (MOD-LEACH), Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering (DEEC), and Stable Election Protocol (SEP). Three performance metrics were chosen; network lifetime, stability period and throughput. The simulation was performed using MATLAB.