A comparative analysis of energy-efficient routing protocols in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

A wireless sensor network (WSN) consists of spatially distributed autonomous sensors for reliable monitoring of a variety of environments for both civil and military application and to cooperatively pass their data through the network to a main location. Routing protocols have significant impact on the overall energy consumption of sensor networks. Suitable energy-efficient routing algorithms are required to the inherent characteristics of these types of networks. Due to resource limitations in wireless sensor networks, prolonging the network lifetime has been of a great interest. Most of the energy of sensor nodes is utilized for the transmission of data to the base station. Thus, it makes them to deplete their energy much faster. In this paper, we look at and compare the different communication protocols, which can have significant impact on the overall energy dissipation of these networks. © 2014 Springer India.