Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

A sensor network is a system that consists of thousands of very small stations called sensor nodes. The main function of sensor nodes is to monitor, record, and notify a specific condition at various locations to other stations and end users. Eventually, this presents a wide range of applications that motivates research in sensor networks. The communication among nodes is done in a wireless fashion, and thus, the name of wireless sensor networks. This paper studies wireless sensor networks throughout a number of selected articles, papers, and online resources. A good understanding of sensor networks and wireless communications is the main learning outcome of this study. Specifically, the research concentrates on routing in sensor networks, and is supported by a simulation of a sensor network application performed with Network Simulator. Before simulating, a careful study of available simulators is conducted as well. Once the tools are available, implementation and simulation follows. The simulation focuses on finding the best routing protocol, in terms of delay and dropped packets, as a complement for the study. The protocols studied are AODV and DSDV. The interpreted results clearly show that DSDV is the best protocol for our simulation. The research concludes with recommendations for future work.