A Survey on Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a survey of state-of-the-art routing techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Compared with traditional wireless networks, WSNs are characterized with denser levels of node deployment, higher unreliability of sensor nodes and severe power, computation and memory constraints. Various design challenges such as energy efficiency, data delivery models, quality of service, overheads etc., for routing protocols in WSNs are highlighted. We addressed most of the proposed routing methods along with scheme designs, benefits and result analysis wherever possible. The routing protocols discussed are classified into seven categories such as Data centric routing, Hierarchical routing, Location based routing, Negotiation based routing, Multipath based routing, Quality of Service (QoS) routing and Mobility based routing. This paper also compares the routing protocols against parameters such as power consumption, scalability, mobility, optimal routing and data aggregation. The paper concludes with possible open research issues in WSNs.