Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are formed by small sensor nodes communicating over wireless links without using a fixed network infrastructure. Sensor nodes have a limited transmission range, and their processing and storage capabilities as well as their energy resources are also limited. Routing protocols for wireless sensor networks have to ensure reliable multi-hop communication under these conditions. We describe design challenges for routing protocols in sensor networks and illustrate the key techniques to achieve desired characteristics, such as energy efficiency and delivery guarantees. We give a survey of state-of-the-art routing techniques with a focus on geographic routing, a paradigm that enables a reactive message-efficient routing without prior route discovery or knowledge of the network topology. Different geographic routing strategies are described as well as beaconless routing techniques. We also show the physical layer impact on routing and outline further research directions.