Construction of an Improved IoT Routing Algorithm based on the LEACH Protocol
Jiong Zhang, Caizeng Ye, Jilin Qin · 2025
Background: The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has led to a wide range of applications of wireless sensor networks in several fields, but the traditional LEACH protocol limits the long-term operation and lifetime of the network in difficult-to-maintain environments due to uneven energy distribution caused by single-hop communication and a single cluster head selection. Methods: To solve the above problems, this study proposes an improved LEACH protocol that optimises cluster head selection, introduces multihop communication to balance the load, and uses dynamic data fusion to reduce unnecessary data transmission, thus improving the efficiency of energy utilisation. The experiments were carried out using an embedded system platform, and networks of 50, 100 and 200 nodes were tested based on the NS-3 network simulation tool. Results: The experimental results show that the improved LEACH protocol significantly outperforms the original protocol in terms of network lifecycle, energy consumption, data transmission efficiency and load balancing, with an increase of about 26%, 25% and 25% in FNDT, NDT50 and ANDT, respectively, a decrease of about 10% in AEC, a significant reduction in TEC, an increase of about 5% in PDR, a decrease of about 15% in AEED, a decrease of about 27% in ECV and an increase of about 27% in CHR increased by about 50 per cent. Conclusion: The improved LEACH protocol extends the network lifecycle, enhances the reliability and efficiency of data transmission, achieves better load balancing, and demonstrates the advantages of real-world applications.