Monte Carlo Simulation of LEACH Protocol for Wireless Sensor Networks

LEACH protocol for wireless sensor network has attracted intensive attention because of its energy efficient, simplicity and load balancing. LEACH is a cluster-based protocol, and the numbers of cluster heads and cluster members generated by LEACH are important parameters for achieving better performance. This paper presents a simulation analysis of the statistical characteristics of the numbers of cluster heads and cluster members for LEACH protocol by means of Monte Carlo method. The simulation results have been compared with the analytical results, and coincidence between them has been observed. The results indicate that the numbers of cluster heads and cluster members vary in a not narrow range, and the probability that there is only one cluster head or there is no cluster head is high when the desired value of cluster heads is small.