Abstract: This paper focused on the performance enhancement of the typical LEACH protocol in security and energy efficiency in wireless sensor networks. Considering security threats faced by the existing LEACH protocol, we proposed a novel dynamic hierarchical cluster-based zoncspanned secure multi-hop routing protocol, so called DZS-LEACH. The main idea is to introduce a dynamic key management scheme in the multi-hop routing protocol to provide communication protection. The DZS-LEACH enables, on the one hand, the scalability of routing mechanism and adaptation to the dy- namic network topology, on the other hand, balances energy consumption by means of partition autonomy and avoids long-distance communication between sensor nodes and sink node. Our simulation experiments demonstrate that theproposed DZS-LEACH may enhance defense ability and reduce data loss caused by network attacks. Meanwhile, the enorgy consumption is reduced significantly and the network lifetime is extended.

Key words: Wireless sensor networks,Secure routing,Partition autonomy,Dynamic keys,I3alanced energy consumption