Network structure based protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks

The Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a wireless network consisting of ten to thousand small nodes with sensing, computing and wireless communication capabilities. WSN are generally used to monitor activities and report events, such as fire, overheating etc. in a specific area or environment. It routs data back to the Base Station (BS). Data transmission is usually a multi-hop from node to node towards the BS. Sensor nodes are limited in power, computational and communication bandwidth. Primary goal of researchers is to find the energy efficient routing protocol. This study highlights the recent routing protocols for sensor networks and presents a classification for the various approaches pursued. The three main categories explored in this paper are data-centric, hierarchical and location-based. Each routing protocol is described and discussed under the appropriate category with advantages and limitations. The paper concludes with issues open for research.