The LEACH Protocol to Improve Energy Efficiency of Wireless Sensor Networks in Smart Agriculture

Abstract

Smart agriculture is the application of technology to improve efficiency, productivity, and sustainability in agricultural practices. However, smart agriculture systems face major challenges related to connectivity and energy management. To address connectivity issues, the Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) architecture is utilized, consisting of sensor nodes to collect and transmit sensor data wirelessly. Despite the implementation of WSN, there are still issues related to high power consumption in smart agriculture systems. This can lead to reduced battery life for each sensor node in the WSN architecture. Therefore, increasing energy efficiency is crucial to optimizing the performance of smart agriculture systems. This study proposes the use of the LEACH (Low-Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy) protocol in smart agriculture to manage clusters within the WSN and reduce energy consumption in each sensor node. Experimental methods were conducted by building the WSN using the nRF24L01 as the sensor data transmitter and Arduino / Node MCU as the microcontroller. The use of the LEACH protocol aims to address energy issues. Additionally, data from each sensor is collected using the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol to facilitate monitoring of sensor data transmission and battery power information. Test results show that the integration of the LEACH protocol into the WSN can be carried out at each stage, from Discovery-State to Steady-State, to Setup-State. These steps are aimed at significantly reducing energy consumption in sensor nodes by 13% over a 12-hour testing period. Furthermore, it can extend battery life and improve the overall system efficiency.