Multi-Hop LEACH based Cross-layer Design for
Large Scale Wireless Sensor Networks
1−2 Amira Ben Ammar, 1 Ali DZIRI, 1 Michel TERRE and 2 Habib YOUSSEF
1
LAETITIA/CEDRIC Lab, CNAM, 292 Rue Saint Martin 75141 Paris, France.
2
PRINCE/ISITCOM Hammam.
Email: {amira.ben ammar, ali.dziri, michel.terre}@cnam.fr, habib.youssef@fsm.rnu.tn,
Abstract—The need for energy-efficient routing and data
gathering protocols in large-scale environments becomes very
challenging. Hierarchical routing in WSNs is a very important
topic. It has been widely investigated relative to energy efficiency
based routing protocols. LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clus-
tering Hierarchy algorithm) is the pioneering cluster routing
protocol in WSNs. However, it is not suitable for large scale
network and wireless channel conditions are ignored during
packet forwarding. To address this issue, we proposed a novel
multi-hop clustering cross layer protocol based on LEACH. It
considers both the SNR of different links and the residual energy
of sensor nodes. Simulation results in terms of the average
energy consumption, the network lifetime and the Packet Delivery
Ratio show clearly the outperformance of the proposed algorithm
versus the conventional LEACH.
Index Terms—Wireless Sensor Networks, Energy efficiency,
Large scale WSNs, LEACH, Multi-hops, cross-layer.
I. I NTRODUCTION
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) consist of a large number
of sensor nodes which are capable of sensing, computing and
wireless communication. These nodes are densely deployed in
a region of interest to be applied in many applications such as
environmental monitoring, military surveillance, habitat mon-
itoring and other industry applications [1]. Since wireless sen-
sor nodes suffer from limited power, large scale network de-
signs have posed many challenges. For these reasons, the most
proposed protocols and algorithms for sensor networks are
focused on efficient utilization of sensor’s energy resources. As
energy consumption increases exponentially with the commu-
nication distance according to the energy consumption model
[2], multi-hop communication is very advantageous for data
gathering for energy saving. Moreover, hierarchical routing
has been proved to be beneficial for network performance [3]
especially for the scalability and energy consumption.
Clustering is a technique that has been widely used in
WSNs. It can effectively reduce the energy consumption of
sensor nodes [4]. There is a lot of existing works about
clustering algorithms related to energy efficiency and network
lifetime analysis for WSNs. LEACH [5] is a pioneering cluster
routing protocol for WSNs. It is an adaptive clustering protocol
that uses randomization to distribute the energy load uniformly
among the sensors in the network. It is discussed with more
details in the next section. Thus, various subsequent protocols
978-1-5090-0304-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE
Sousse, Tunisia
[4], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12] are proposed as extended
versions of the conventional LEACH.
In this work, we review the LEACH protocol and its
extended versions aiming to the energy efficiency. Then, we
propose our dual SNR-residual energy thresholds based multi-
hops LEACH adapted for large scale WSNs. Indeed, we pro-
pose a multi-hop clustering algorithm with a focus on efficient
clustering by a proper selection of Cluster-Heads (CHs) based
on the link quality, the physical distance between nodes and
residual energy. Furthermore, we address the problem that
clusters at a great distance from the Base Station (BS) require
more energy for transmission than those closer to the BS. The
main objective of the proposed approach is to balance energy
consumption leading to individual lifetime extension of each
sensor node, and consequently, the entire network under some
requirements in packet Delivery Ratio (PDR).
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows: Section
II provides an overview on LEACH and its extended versions
dedicated to energy efficiency. Section III introduces the
proposed algorithm and its implementation. Section IV is
dedicated to simulation results and discussions. Finally, section
V concludes this paper and outlines the future work.
II. R ELATED WORK
LEACH is a clustering based protocol which reduces the
energy dissipation by dividing the network into clusters to
restrict direct communication between nodes and base station.
In this protocol timeline is divided into rounds. Each round
is composed of two phases: set-up phase corresponding to
clusters organization, and steady state phase corresponding to
data transmission to the base station. We note that the former
is composed mainly by three sub-phases: advertisement phase,
cluster Set-up phase, and Schedule Creation phase. In the
first sub-phase, each node decides whether to be a Cluster
Head (CH) or not based on the choice of a random number p
between 0 and 1. If the number is less than a given threshold
T (n) defined below, the node becomes a CH for the current
round. The threshold is given by :
(
P
1
1−P ×(r.mod P )
if n ∈ G
T (n) =
0 otherwise
Where P is the desired percentage of cluster head, r is
the current round, and G is the set of nodes that have not
763
been cluster-heads in the last 1/P rounds. The elected CH
nodes broadcast their status to the other sensors in the network.
In the second sub-phase, all nodes except the CHs, choose
their CH according their distance far from the different CHs.
Finally, the TDMA schedule for data transmission is defined
[5]; Based on the number of nodes in each cluster, the CH
node creates a TDMA schedule and broadcasts back to the
nodes in the cluster, telling to each one when it can transmit.
It is worth noticing that LEACH incorporates data fusion
into the routing protocol to reduce the amount of information
transmitted to the base station and uses localized coordination
to enable scalability for dynamic networks. Thus, it reduces
energy dissipation and enhances system lifetime. In [13], there
is a large discussion of some extended versions of LEACH
regarding their structures, advantages and disadvantages. Arati
and Dharma [14] have introduced a new network protocol
called Threshold sensitive Energy Efficient sensor Network
protocol (TEEN) for reactive networks. This protocol behaves
as LEACH but incorporates a threshold to reduce the number
of transmissions by allowing the nodes to transmit only when
the sensed attribute is in the range of interest. This protocol is
not suited for applications that needs to get data on a regular
basis. In [15], Hybrid Energy-Efficient Distributed (HEED)
clustering was introduced. It is a fully distributed cluster-based
routing technique. This protocol is different from LEACH
for CHs election. HEED primarily elects CHs according
to their residual energy, and nodes join clusters such that
communication cost is minimized. HEED achieves high energy
efficiency and scalability by multi-hop inter-cluster communi-
cation. Energy Efficient Hierarchical Clustering (EEHC) [16]
is a distributed, randomized clustering algorithm to organize
the sensor nodes into clusters. This technique is based on two
stages: Initial and extended stages. In the first one, called also
single-level clustering, each sensor node announces itself as
a CH with a probability p to the neighboring nodes within
its communication range. In the second stage, the process is
extended to allow multi-level clustering and generally builds
h levels of cluster hierarchy. The Weighted Clustering Al-
gorithm (WCA) elects a node as a CH based on the ideal
degree, transmission power, battery-life and mobility rate of
the node [17]. It also restricts the number of nodes in a
cluster in order to facilitate the MAC protocol operation. Most
of communication protocols are individually developed for
different networking layers. They are not jointly designed to
minimize the energy expenditure and to maximize the overall
network performance. Recent results [18], revealed that cross-
layer design techniques leaded to significant improvement in
terms of energy efficiency in WSNs. Akyildiz and al. [19]
developed a cross layer Protocol XLP that employs the concept
of initiative determination. This protocol represents one of
the first model to incorporate the intrinsic communication
functionalities required for communication in WSN into one
module. L. Shi and al. [20] proposed a cross layer approach
which controls transmission power and aims to minimize the
network-wide energy consumption. This operation is based
on the path-loss characteristic of one hop between connected
764
sensor nodes. The proposed model utilizes a TDMA schedule
with the slot reuse concept to achieve minimum TDMA
frame length, and a clustering routing algorithm. Then, they
assume that a slot is reused only if the interference introduced
is negligible, and the transmission power control is done
for every frame length. Thus, the trade-off between energy
consumption and frame length needs to be investigated.
It is worth noticing that the presented algorithms present
some limitations relative to the energy efficiency. In fact,
LEACH uses single-hop communication directly from CHs
to the BS. Since long-range communications from CHs to
the BS is too much energy consumption, LEACH is not
applicable for large scale sensor networks, spreading over
large distances. Furthermore, CH election is performed only
based on a probability factor and ignored completely the
residual energy of sensor nodes. The other algorithms consider
the residual energy but not the link SNR for reliability and
robustness of the wireless communication. In our work, we
tackle the problem of energy efficiency by improving the
conventional LEACH as presented in next section.
III. THE PROPOSED NEW CROSS LAYER
APPROACH
A. Radio Model
In this paper, we use the radio model and the parameters
defined in [5], [4]. We have considered the two Ray Ground
propagation model. We assume two types of energy defined as
: the transmission energy denoted by ET xelec and the reception
energy denoted by ERx . To transmit s bit packet length within
distance d, a node consumes an energy ET x given by :
ET x (s, d) = ET xelec (s) + ET xamp (s, d) (1)
α
= Eelec ∗ s + Eamp ∗ s ∗ d
where Eelec is the radio electronics energy, Eamp is the radio
amplifier energy, and α = 2 if d ≤ d0 , α = 4 if d > d0 , d0 is
the breakpoint distance
To receive an s packet length within a distance d, a sensor
node consumes an energy ERxelec given by
ERx (s) = ERxelec (s) (2)
= Eelec ∗ s
B. The proposed algorithm
The proposed algorithm is based on LEACH with some
major modifications to tackle with the challenges cited above.
It is divided into rounds, where each round begins with a setup
phase, and a steady-state phase. However, we handle with two
main aspects related the method of CH election and the relay
sensor node selection in a given cluster.
1) Set-up phase: In the advertisement phase, each node
decides whether to be a CH or not based on the choice of
the desired percentage of cluster head P , and the residual
energy threshold Eth ; i.e., From the set of CHs obtained by the
conventional LEACH, we choose only those with a residual
energy greater than Eth . In the cluster Set Up phase, all nodes
except CHs, choose their CH according to their relative SNRs
to the different CHs by using the Request To Send (RTS) and
(Clear To Set (CTS) packets. Finally, the schedule creation is
kept the as the conventional LEACH.
2) steady-state phase: In this phase, the proposed protocol
is also diffrent from LEACH. In fact, communication over
long distances requires high energy consumption. Thus, direct
communication between CHs and BS is not adapted for large
scale networks. Therefore, we extend LEACH to a multi-
hop version based on short communication distances that can
reduce energy consumption. By increasing the number of hops,
the overall lifetime of the sensor network will be efficiently
improved. Data transmission goes through two stages: Intra-
Cluster Communication and inter-cluster communications as
indicated by Fig. 1, 2, respectively.
Fig. 1. Intra-cluster communica- Fig. 2. Inter-cluster communica-
tion tion
10) else
11) Transmission data to node J
12) end if
13) End for
Inter-Cluster Communication We consider a source CH
node S that broadcasts an RREQ packet to discover its routing
path to the base station D. We consider Eth and γth as the
residual energy and the SNR thresholds to forward or not the
RREQ packet to its neighboring CH nodes. We add an extra
field in the RREQ packet denoted by RREQ → γ that indicates
the current minimum value of SNR of the experienced path
links.
If we consider three consecutive CH nodes j − 1, j and
j + 1, the j − th CH node forwards the received RREQ packet
from j − 1 to the (j + 1) − th node, if two conditions are
verified :
• Ej ≥ Eth ,
• γj ≥ γth ,
where Ej and γj indicate the energy and the SNR at the j −th
CH node.
Then, the node j compares its SNR value to RREQ → γ.
The destination will compare RREQ → γ of different paths
within a specified time interval depending on the application,
and sends RREP in the reverse path that contains the maximum
end-to-end SNR RREQ → γ. Consequently, the proposed
inter-cluster algorithm can be summarized as follows.

Intra-Cluster Communication In a given cluster, a given Pseudo-code2 : intermediate CH selection in inter-Cluster

communication
source node S decides to transmit its data either directly to its
CH, or by using a relay sensor node R in the same cluster.
We consider a relay node if three conditions are fulfilled. First,
the residual energy of R is greater than Eth . Then, the SNR 1) Each source CH node S broadcasts RREQ packet to
values for the S-R and R-CH links are greater than a given inform its neighboring CH nodes,
threshold γth . Finally, the transmitted energy consumed for the 2) if j == Intermediate CH node
S-R-CH path is less than that is consumed for S-CH path. In 3) if Ej > Eth && γj > γth
the following, we give a pseudo code for the intermediate node 4) RREQ → γ = min (RREQ → γ, γj )
selection in intra-cluster communication. 5) Forward RREQ to the neighbors

6) else
Pseudo-code1 : intermediate node selection in intra-Cluster
communication
7) REJECT the session, and DROP the RREQ
8) end if
9) else //j == D
1) Each source node I broadcasts RTS packet to inform its
10) D compares RREQ → γ of different paths
neighboring nodes in the same cluster,
11) D sends RREP in reverse path that contains maxi-
2) For each node J in cluster receiving RTS packet
mum RREQ → γ value
3) if Ej > Eth && γIJ > γth && γJC > γth
12) End if
4) Respond with CTS packet
It is worth noticing that for both communication phases, we
5) else integrate two metrics:
• Residual energy threshold Eth : it ensures that the re-
6) REJECT the session, and DROP the RTS maining energy of a node stays above a minimum value
7) end if Eth . This amount will be reserved only for sensing or
8) if EIC < EIJ + EJC transmitting their own data. This constraint allows the
9) Direct transmission to clusterhead balancing of energy consumption throughout the network.

765
 200
• SNR threshold γth : This value of SNR is very useful
to make the discovered route more robust and ensures 180

reliable links to be constructed for communication based 160

LEACH
The proposed algorithm

on the current channel conditions between different CHs. 140

IV. S IMULATION

Number of dead nodes

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 120

We consider a data-gathering WSN where n homogeneous 100

sensors are randomly deployed in a region with the sink

80
located at the center [21] using MATLAB environment. We
varied the number of sensor nodes between 200 and 1000 to 60

handle with a sparse sensor network and a very dense one. 40

These sensors are deployed in an area of 1000×1000 m2 . 20

The simulation time is set between 100 and 3000 rounds. The
0
remaining simulation parameters are summarized in table I as 0 500 1000 1500
Number of rounds
2000 2500 3000

defined in [5], [4].

TABLE I Fig. 3. Network lifetime with 200 nodes for LEACH and the proposed
S IMULATION PARAMETERS algorithm

1000
Parameters Values
BS location (xBS= 500m, 900
yBS= 500m)
Bandwidth channel B 0.1M bps 800 LEACH
Data packet length 160 bytes The proposed algorithm
700
Percentage of cluster head P 0.05
Number of dead nodes
Initial energy of a sensor node 0.5 J 600
Residual energy threshold Eth 1%
EDA 5nJ/bit 500

Eelec 50 nJ/bit
400
SNR threshold γth [22] 10 dB
transmission power P0 1dBm 300
round time 20 s
d0 breakpoint distance 87 m 200

100

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
A. Network lifetime Number of rounds

A lot of existing works define the lifetime of WSNs as the

duration from network initialization to the time when the first
node dies [3], [23]. We consider this definition to evaluate our
cross layer protocol. Fig. 3 and 4 show the total number of
dead nodes versus simulation time for 200 nodes and 1000
nodes, respectively. It is well seen that our proposed protocol
outperforms LEACH in terms of network lifetime; it achieves
a gain factor of almost 10 for the two scnarios. We note that
LEACH behaves better for 200 nodes than for 1000 nodes.
In fact, for the first configuration, there is almost 90% of
dead nodes at 750 rounds, contrarily to 70 rounds in the
next configuration. This degradation is due to long distance
between the CHs and the BS. Nevertheless, the number of
dead nodes for proposed algorithm remains very low for the
two cases. This improvement is due to the integration of
multi-hops communication which reduces considerably the
consumed energy as stated above. Moreover, the integration
of the residual energy threshold enhances the balancing of
residual energy through the network which delayed the first
node death.
B. Energy consumption
Obtained results in terms of energy consumption are de-
picted in Fig. 5 and 6 for the two considered scenarios,
Fig. 4. Network lifetime with 1000 nodes for LEACH and the proposed
algorithm
respectively. It is worth noticing that the proposed algorithm
outperforms LEACH for the same reasons cited above.
C. Packet delivery ratios
Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) is an important metric in
evaluating QoS based routing protocols. Fig.7 shows the
obtained results in terms of PDR for the proposed algorithm
and LEACH protocol. This enhancement is introduced by two
factors : reducing the rapid depletion of the battery sensor
nodes in LEACH caused by the unbalancing energy through
the network. Then, the introduction of an SNR threshold which
improves the robustness and the reliability of the intra-cluster
links or inter-clusters links. For the second scenario, we see
more clearly the high degradation of LEACH compared to the
proposed algorithm.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented a cross layer clustering
approach as an improvement of the conventional LEACH.
It is dedicated for Large Scale WSNs. We have presented

766
 0.5
residual energy and SNR thresholds. The introduction of multi-
0.45
hops communications have considerably improved LEACH
LEACH
The proposed algorithm by finding the best path between the source CH and the
0.4
destination. Simulation results in terms of network lifetime,
Average residual energy per node

average energy consumption, and successful packet delivery

0.35 rate are in agreement with the expected results. In future work,
we investigate the time delay of the proposed algorithm, and
0.3 we will present a cross-layer analytical model to investigate
more closely the performance of this approach.
0.25

R EFERENCES
0.2
[1] M. Magno, D. Boyle, D. Brunelli, E. Popovici, and L. Benini, “ Ensuring
survivability of resource intensive sensor networks through ultra-low
power overlays ,” IEEE Trans. Industr. Informatics., vol. 10, no. 2, pp.
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000
Number of rounds 946–956, May. 2014.
[2] J. Ren, Y. Zhang, and K. Liu, “ An energy-efficient cyclic diversionary
routing strategy against global eavesdroppers in wireless sensor networks
Fig. 5. Average residual energy with 200 nodes for LEACH and the proposed ,” Inter. J. Distr. Sensor Netw., vol. 2013, no. 15, pp. 1–16, Mar. 2013.
algorithm [3] Q. Chen, S. Kanhere, and M. Hassan, “ Analysis of per-node traffic load
in multi-hop wireless sensor networks ,” IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun.,
0.5 vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 958 –967, Feb. 2009.
[4] W. Heinzelman, A. Chandrakasan, and H. Balakrishnan, “ An
application-specific protocol architecture for wireless microsensor net-
0.45 works ,” IEEE Trans. Wire. Commun., vol. 1, no. 4, pp. 660–670, Oct.
2002.
LEACH
The proposed algorithm [5] W. B. Heinzelman, A. Chandrakasan, and H. Balakrishnan, “ Energyef-
Average residual energy per node

0.4 ficient communication protocol for wireless microsensor networks ,” in

in Proc. 33rd Annu. Hawaii Int. Conf. Syst. Sci., Maui, HI, USA, Jan.
2000, pp. 10–19.
0.35
[6] H. M. Abdulsalam and L. K. Kamel, “ W-LEACH:Weighted low energy
adaptive clustering hierarchy aggregation algorithm for data streams in
wireless sensor networks ,” in in Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. Data Mining
0.3
Workshops, Sydney, NSW, Australia, Dec. 2010, pp. 1–8.
[7] V. Loscri, G. Morabito, and S. Marano, “ A two-levels hierarchy for
0.25
low-energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (TL-LEACH),” in in Proc.
IEEE 62nd Semiannu. Veh. Technol. Conf., Dallas, TX, USA, Sep. 2005,
pp. 1809–1813.
0.2 [8] Leonardo B. Oliveiraa, Adrian Ferreirac, Marco A. Vilac-ac, Hao Chi
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Number of rounds Wongb, Marshall Bernb, Ricardo Dahaba, and Antonio A.F. Loureiroc,
“ SecLEACH-On the security of clustered sensor networks ,” Signal
Process., vol. 87, no. 12, pp. 2882–2895, Dec. 2007.
Fig. 6. Average residual energy with 1000 nodes for LEACH and the [9] M. B. Yassein, A. Al-zou’bi, Y. Khamayseh, and W. Mardini, “
proposed algorithm Improvement on LEACH protocol of wireless sensor network ,” Int.
J. Digital Content Technol., vol. 3, no. 2, pp. 132–136, Jun. 2009.
100 [10] F. Xiangning and S. Yulin, “ Improvement on LEACH protocol of
LEACH wireless sensor network ,” in in Proc. Int. Conf. Sensor Technol. Appl.,
The proposed algorithm
95 Valencia, Spain, Oct. 2007, pp. 260–264.
[11] H. Zhang G. Ran and S. Gong, “ Improving on LEACH protocol of
90
wireless sensor networks using fuzzy logic ,” J. Inf. Comput. Sci., vol.
7, no. 3, pp. 767–775, Mar. 2010.
[12] J. Hong, J. Kook, S. Lee, D. Kwon, and S. Yi, “ T-LEACH: The method
Packet Delivery Ratio(%)

85
of threshold-based cluster head replacement for wireless sensor networks
,” Inf. Syst. Frontiers., vol. 11, no. 5, pp. 513–521, Nov. 2009.
80
[13] V. Kumar, S. Jain, and S. Tiwari, “ Energy efficient clustering algorithms
in wireless sensor networks: A survey ,” IJCSI Int. J. Comput. Sci.
75 Issues, vol. 8, no. 5, pp. 259–268, Sep. 2011.
[14] Arati Manjeshwar and Dharma P. Agrawal, “ TEEN: a routing protocol
70 for enhanced efficiency in wireless sensor networks ,” in IEEE Parallel
and Distributed Processing Symposium, April. 2000, pp. 2009 – 2015.
65 [15] O. Younis and S. Fahmy, “ HEED: A Hybrid, Energy-Efficient,
Distributed clustering approach for Ad Hoc sensor networks ,” IEEE
60 Transactions on Mobile Computing., vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 366–379, Oct.
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Packet Arrival Rate (packets/sec) 2004.
[16] S.Bandyopadhyay and E.Coyle, “ An energy efficient hierarchical
clustering algorithm for wireless sensor networks ,” in 22nd Annual
Fig. 7. Packets delivery ratio with 200 nodes Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies
(INFOCOM), San Francisco, California, April. 2003, pp. 1713 – 1723.
[17] M. Chatterjee, S. K. Das, and D. Turgut, “ WCA: A Weighted
Clustering Algorithm for Mobile Ad hoc Networks ,” Journal of Cluster
the LEACH protocol with more details. Then, we have im- Computing, Special issue on Mobile Ad hoc Networking., vol. 5, no. 2,
proved almost all steps of LEACH by introducing a dual pp. 193–204, April. 2002.

767
[18] L. van Hoesel, T. Nieberg, J. Wu, and P.J.M. Havinga, “ Prolonging
the Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks by Cross-Layer Interaction ,”
IEEE Wireless Comm., vol. 11, no. 6, pp. 78–86, Dec. 2004.
[19] M. C. Vuran and I. F. Akyildiz, “ XLP: A Cross-Layer Protocol for
Efficient Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks ,” IEEE Trans.
Mob. Comput., vol. 9, no. 11, pp. 1578–1591, Nov. 2010.
[20] L. Shi and A. Fapojuwo, “ TDMA Scheduling with Optimized Energy
Efficiency and Minimum Delay in Clustered Wireless Sensor Networks
,” IEEE Trans. Mob. Comput., vol. 9, no. 7, pp. 927–940, Jul. 2010.
[21] A. Chakraborty, R. Rout, A. Chakrabarti, , and S. Ghosh, “On network
lifetime expectancy with realistic sensing and traffic generation model
in wireless sensor networks,” IEEE Sensors Journal, vol. 13, no. 7, pp.
2771–2779, 2013.
[22] M.C. Vuran and I.F. Akyildiz, “XLP: A Cross-Layer Protocol for
Efficient Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks,” IEEE Trans.
Mobile Computing, vol. 9, no. 11, pp. 1578–1591, Jul. 2010.
[23] Q. Chen, S. Kanhere, and M. Hassan, “Analysis of per-node traffic
load in multi-hop wireless sensor networks,” IEEE Trans Wireless
Communication, vol. 8, no. 2, pp. 958–967, 2009.

768