Analysis of Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Recent advances in wireless sensor networks have led to many new protocols specifically designed for sensor networks where energy awareness is an essential consideration. Most of the attention, however, has been given to the routing protocols since they might differ depending on the application and network architecture. This paper surveys recent routing protocols for sensor networks and presents a classification for the various approaches pursued. The three main categories explained in this paper are flat, hierarchical and location based. Each routing protocol is described and discussed under the appropriate category. Moreover, advantages and performance issues of each routing techniques are also described.