## 1 Introduction
In addition, a combination of three different methods (random, periodic, and checking the remaining power at each) are used to make the routing protocol lightweight and more efficient, as detailed in different parts of the manuscript. In a summary, the proposed model is distinguished by simplicity, ease, and lightness, and these are achieved by avoiding the complexity burdens resulting from intense calculations. From previous studies, it may be concluded that WSNs are still immature in several aspects. WSNs still suffer from power consumption as a major problem. In the same way, clustering is a common approach used to reduce delays, loss ratio, and power consumption. However, it lacks a method for electing an optimum cluster head to enhance the data aggregation efficiency. Furthermore, inefficient cluster head election leads to the high-power consumption of the sensor nodes. Besides, the extensive calculation in the cluster head election process, such as node centrality measure, hop count, and density, results in energy depletion quickly, consequently shortening the lifetime of the network. Finally, the high delays in the WSNs are occurred due to incorrect energy-based path selection. To solve these downsides in existing routing protocols for WSNs, the proposed protocol LEDCHE-WSN constructs the coming objectives. It introduces a simple, light, and easy deploy algorithm. It reduces power consumption by using the clustering approach with efficient cluster head election in WSNs and, therefore, the lifetime of the WSNs is prolonged. Additionally, the LEDCHE-WSN protocol finds an optimal method to send a data packet to the sink node with minimum delay and routing overhead. It also enhances security during the CH election process. In this sense, this work aims to reduce power consumption, enhance network delay, and strengthen the security side. Therefore, the main contributions of this study are the following:  
The proposal of LEDCHE-WSN routing protocol introduces a new random method to elect the CH candidate by checking its remaining power at the first round, to skip dead nodes and to complexes tracking the CHs by attackers, unlike a common random method, which elects the CH randomly and blindly (without checking);  
The proposal of a protocol using a combination of a random and periodic method per round to gain their advantages during the CH election process. Moreover, both random and periodic electing methods are preceded by checking the remaining power to skip dead nodes, and continue in the same way periodically with the rest of the nodes in a round/cycle to distribute the power load equally among network sensors. The proposed method is distinguished by deleting the failure and/or dead nodes from the network topology during the re-clustering process, to address the black holes and routing delay problems. In turn, it results in a waste of time and a waste of energy, due to additional control messages in repetitive checking in each round/cycle for useless nodes if they are not deleted from the topology list. The mathematical modeling and analysis of the proposed algorithm is introduced to illustrate and strengthen the proposed approach. Performance assessment of the benchmark protocols and used in evaluating and validating the proposed LEDCHE-WSN routing protocol. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Some background about the mechanisms required, and clustering approaches in WSNs, are described in Section 2. Section 3 presents the related work about CH selection protocols for WSNs under different categories. Section 4 introduces the proposed network model and its architectural characteristics. The proposed LEDCHE-WSN protocol is presented in Section 5. Performance evaluation and results analysis are presented in Section 6. Finally, Section 7 concludes the paper and suggests future research works.