Routing protocols

Abstract

Wireless Sensor Network is one of the most emerging technologies that consist of the small and low-cost sensor node to sense various kinds of environmental condition and statistics. In most of its applications, the sensors nodes are initially deployed randomly and then they are expected to self-organize themselves using protocols or algorithms. Routing protocol ensures an optimum path connecting source and destination node either in a single path or multipath communication. Since the sensor nodes are equipped with limited power and communication bandwidth, researchers aim to find an energy efficient routing protocols for WSN application. Routing protocols are broadly classified into seven different categories such as Location-based Protocols, Data-centric Protocols, Hierarchical Protocols, Multipath-based Protocols, Heterogeneity-based Protocols and QoS-based protocols. Routing algorithms may differ depending on application or the sensor network architecture, but the main design criterion of any WSN will be to keep the nodes functioning as long as possible in order to enhance the network lifetime with a limited expenditure of energy. As clustering is by far the best approach for efficient energy utilization, hierarchical protocols such as LEACH, TEEN, SEP, PEGASIS, DEEC, HEED, APTEEN are some of the widely used protocols for transferring data from node to sink or base station. In this chapter, various types of routing protocols, their advantages, and disadvantages along with the field of application will be discussed in brief.