Abstract: Wireless sensor networks require energy-efficient routing protocols to prolong the system lifetime.Routing algorithms are firstly introduced for WSN,and then the Leach algorithm is researched. Based on Leach,a density-based clustering protocol was proposed.While selecting cluster heads,the protocol can set the scale of each cluster based on the density of nodes,with the network load and energy distribution balanced.Simulations show that our proposed protocal is more effective in prolonging the network lifetime and reducing the energy dissipation compared with Leach.

Key words: Wireless sensor network,Clustering routing protocol,Leach,Network lifetime