Rasoul Kiani - Department of Computer Engineering, Fars Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran
Mojtaba Montazeri - Department of Computer Engineering, Fars Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) include a number of nodes that can communicate with each other and with the base station. In these networks due to the nature characteristics compared to the other wireless networks the routing has been a main challenge and its related protocols may be designed based on the application or type of architecture. In the cluster-based protocols, the network is divided into small groups called clusters and each cluster has a cluster head and some members. The use of clustering has made for improving the network lifetime and the optimize use of energy. LEACH algorithm has been one of the main routing protocols of hierarchical type in which cluster heads are elected at random. Several methods such as algorithms PLEACH, Modified LEACH, E-LEACH and LEACH-C have been provided in order to improve that and in this paper the advantages, disadvantages, efficiency and challenges related to them are examined

WSNs, LEACH protocol, Hierarchical cluster-based routing