A Comparative Study on Energy Efficient Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

Due to recent development in technology, the implementation of wireless sensor networks becomes technically feasible. Wireless Sensor network consist of sensory nodes having the capacity of sense the environment, perform the computation and communication. Wireless sensor network plays a crucial role in monitoring of both area and object. Several routing protocols have been developed for wireless sensor network during the past few years. Routing protocol differs from other protocols depending on the required practical application and network architecture. Energy efficiency is an essential and primary design issue for the routing protocols. This paper focused on all the categories of the routing protocols. We categorized the routing protocols into three main classes path establishment, network structure and protocol operation. The routing protocols belonging to path establishment can be further classified as proactive, reactive and hybrid. The routing protocols belonging to network structure can be further classified as data centric/attribute based, hierarchical and location based. The routing protocols belonging to protocol operation can be further classified as query, bio-inspired, negotiation, coherent, non coherent, QoS, multipath and mobility. The pros and cons of the routing protocols along with the applications are also discussed.