Design Issues and Challenges in Hierarchical Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

The modern research has found a variety of applications and systems with vastly varying requirements and characteristics in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The research has led to materialization of many application specific routing protocols which must be energy-efficient. As a consequence, it is becoming increasingly difficult to discuss the design issues requirements regarding hardware and software support. Implementation of efficient system in a multidisciplinary research such as WSNs is becoming very difficult. In this paper we discuss the design issues in hierarchical routing protocols for WSNs by considering its various dimensions and metrics such as Mobility, Power Usage, Traffic and Quality of Service. The paper presents a comprehensive comparative study for different hierarchical routing protocols for WSNs.