ABSTRACT
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of small nodes with sensing, computation, and wireless communications capabilities. Many routing, power management, and data dissemination protocols have been specifically designed for Wireless Sensor Networks, where energy awareness is an essential design issue. The focus has been given to the routing protocols which might differ depending on the application and network architecture. In this paper, we present a survey of the state – of – the – art routing techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks. We first outline the design challenges for routing protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks followed by a comprehensive survey of different routing techniques. Overall, the routing techniques are classified into three categories based on the underlying network structure: Flat, Hierarchical, and Location – based routing. Furthermore, these protocols can be classified into multipath – based, query – based, negotiation – based, QoS – based, and coherent – based depending on the protocol operation. We study the design tradeoffs between energy and communication overhead savings in every routing paradigm. We also highlight the advantages and performance issues of each routing technique. The paper concludes with possible future research areas.
