This paper first introduces the types and characteristics of HWSN, expounds its typical architecture, through comparing with homogeneous wireless sensor network, the performance of HWSN is quantitative calculated, analysis results show that HWSN can improve the reliability of data transmission, reduce the energy consumption of data transmission, reduce the delay of data transmission, and with the increase of network scale, highlight the advantages of heterogeneous networks. HWSN covering algorithm performance evaluation indexes are given finally.