An application-specific protocol architecture for

660IEEETRANSACTIONSONWIRELESSCOMMUNICATIONS,VOL.1,NO.4,OCTOBER2002AnApplication-SpecificProtocolArchitectureforWirelessMicrosensorNetworksWendiB.Heinzelman,Member,IEEE,AnanthaP.Chandrakasan,SeniorMember,IEEE,andHariBalakrishnan,Member,IEEEAbstract—Networkingtogetherhundredsorthousandsofcheapmicrosensornodesallowsuserstoaccuratelymonitoraremoteen-vironmentbyintelligentlycombiningthedatafromtheindividualnodes.Thesenetworksrequirerobustwirelesscommunicationpro-tocolsthatareenergyefficientandprovidelowlatency.Inthispaper,wedevelopandanalyzelow-energyadaptiveclusteringhier-archy(LEACH),aprotocolarchitectureformicrosensornetworksthatcombinestheideasofenergy-efficientcluster-basedroutingandmediaaccesstogetherwithapplication-specificdataaggrega-tiontoachievegoodperformanceintermsofsystemlifetime,la-tency,andapplication-perceivedquality.LEACHincludesanew,distributedclusterformationtechniquethatenablesself-organiza-tionoflargenumbersofnodes,algorithmsforadaptingclustersandrotatingclusterheadpositionstoevenlydistributetheenergyloadamongallthenodes,andtechniquestoenabledistributedsignalprocessingtosavecommunicationresources.OurresultsshowthatLEACHcanimprovesystemlifetimebyanorderofmag-nitudecomparedwithgeneral-purposemultihopapproaches.IndexTerms—Dataaggregation,protocolarchitecture,wirelessmicrosensornetworks.I.INTRODUCTIONADVANCESiNsensortechnology,low-powerelectronics,andlow-powerradiofrequency(RF)designhaveenabledthedevelopmentofsmall,relativelyinexpensiveandlow-powersensors,calledmicrosensors,thatcanbeconnectedviaawire-lessnetwork.Thesewirelessmicrosensornetworksrepresentanewparadigmforextractingdatafromtheenvironmentanden-ablethereliablemonitoringofavarietyofenvironmentsforap-plicationsthatincludesurveillance,machinefailurediagnosis,andchemical/biologicaldetection.Animportantchallengeinthedesignofthesenetworksisthattwokeyresources—com-municationbandwidthandenergy—aresignificantlymorelim-itedthaninatetherednetworkenvironment.Theseconstraintsrequireinnovativedesigntechniquestousetheavailableband-widthandenergyefficiently.ManuscriptreceivedJanuary9,2001;revisedJuly1,2001andAugust24,2001;acceptedAugust24,2001.TheeditorcoordinatingthereviewofthispaperandapprovingitforpublicationisM.Zorzi.TheworkofW.B.HeinzelmanwassupportedbyaKodakFellowship.ThisworkwassupportedinpartbytheDefenseAdvancedResearchProjectAgency(DARPA)PowerAwareComputing/CommunicationProgramandtheU.S.AirForceResearchLaboratory,AirForceMaterielCommand,underAgreementF30602-00-2-0551.W.B.HeinzelmanwaswiththeMassachusettsInstituteofTechnology,Cam-bridge,MA02139USA.SheisnowwiththeDepartmentofElectricalandCom-puterEngineering,UniversityofRochester,Rochester,NY14627-0126USA(e-mail:[e-mail]).A.P.ChandrakasanandH.BalakrishnanarewiththeMassachusettsInsti-tuteofTechnology,Cambridge,MA02139USA(e-mail:[e-mail];[e-mail]).DigitalObjectIdentifier10.1109/TWC.2002.804190Inordertodesigngoodprotocolsforwirelessmicrosensornetworks,itisimportanttounderstandtheparametersthatarerelevanttothesensorapplications.Whiletherearemanywaysinwhichthepropertiesofasensornetworkprotocolcanbeeval-uated,weusethefollowingmetrics.A.EaseofDeploymentSensornetworksmaycontainhundredsorthousandsofnodes,andtheymayneedtobedeployedinremoteordan-gerousenvironments,allowinguserstoextractinformationinwaysthatwouldnothavebeenpossibleotherwise.Thisrequiresthatnodesbeabletocommunicatewitheachotherevenintheabsenceofanestablishednetworkinfrastructureandpredefinednodelocations.B.SystemLifetimeThesenetworksshouldfunctionforaslongaspossible.Itmaybeinconvenientorimpossibletorechargenodebatteries.There-fore,allaspectsofthenode,fromthehardwaretotheprotocols,mustbedesignedtobeextremelyenergyefficient.C.LatencyDatafromsensornetworksaretypicallytimesensitive,soitisimportanttoreceivethedatainatimelymanner.D.QualityThenotionof“quality”inamicrosensornetworkisverydifferentthanintraditionalwirelessdatanetworks.Forsensornetworks,theenduserdoesnotrequireallthedatainthenetworkbecause1)thedatafromneighboringnodesarehighlycorrelated,makingthedataredundantand2)theendusercaresaboutahigher-leveldescriptionofeventsoccurringintheenvironmentbeingmonitored.Thequalityofthenetworkis,therefore,basedonthequalityoftheaggregatedataset,soprotocolsshouldbedesignedtooptimizefortheunique,application-specificqualityofasensornetwork.Thispaperbuildsontheworkdescribedin[11]bygivingadetaileddescriptionandanalysisoflow-energyadaptiveclusteringhierarchy(LEACH),anapplication-specificprotocolarchitectureforwirelessmicrosensornetworks.LEACHemploysthefollowingtechniquestoachievethedesigngoalsstated:1)randomized,adaptive,self-configuringclusterfor-mation;2)localizedcontrolfordatatransfers;3)low-energymediaaccesscontrol(MAC);and4)application-specificdataprocessing,suchasdataaggregationorcompression.Simula-tionresultsshowthatLEACHisabletoachievethedesiredpropertiesofsensornetworks.1536-1276/02$17.00©2002IEEEAuthorizedlicenseduselimitedto:XianJiaotongUniversity.DownloadedonOctober11,2008at07:30fromIEEEXplore.Restrictionsapply