A comparative analysis of routing techniques for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of small nodes with sensing, computation and wireless communications capabilities. These sensor networks interconnect a several other nodes when established in large and this opens up several technical challenges and immense application possibilities. These wireless sensor networks communicate using multi-hop wireless communications, regular ad hoc routing techniques cannot be directly applied to sensor networks domain due to the limited processing power and the finite power available to each sensor nodes hence recent advances in wireless sensor networks have developed many protocols depending on the application and network architecture and are specifically designed for sensor networks where energy awareness is an essential consideration. This paper surveys recent routing protocols for sensor networks and compares the routing protocols that are presently of increasing importance. Here three main categories of protocols, flat based, hierarchical and location based protocols are distinguished based on the way the next hop is selected on the route of a message and briefly describes the operation of a representative member from each group. Each routing protocol is described and discussed under the appropriate category. We also highlight the advantages and performance issues of each routing technique. The paper concludes with possible future research areas.