Multi‐Hop Communications

This chapter concentrates on how to exchange data between remote nodes. It explores several possible scenarios data in terms of data collection, routing or multi‐hop communications, and the most popular routing protocols currently in use. These scenarios are differentiated based on the source and the destination of the data inside the network. Directed diffusion is a routing protocol, uses a paradigm called information interest and a publish‐subscribe mechanism to deliver data to many different interested destinations. The most widely used routing protocol is Collection Tree, which is based on the idea that data needs to be collected from all nodes in the sensor network rather than routed from a single source. It is worth exploring a standardised routing protocol such as the one used in the Zigbee standard. There are some clear advantages to using a standardized protocol because they are often readily implemented on devices and can be used out of the box.