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Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks:
A Research Paper
Richard Tillies, II
I.
PROBLEM STATEMENT
This research paper will attempt to explain some of
the existing protocols used for routing in Wireless
Sensor Networks and compare those to protocols
used in wired and wireless networking of traditional
computers.
II. INTRODUCTION
A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a collection of
sensors that communicate with each other wirelessly.
Each sensor is a small node that is capable of
performing calculations like a CPU. Each sensor is
also capable of sensing and communicating with
other nodes.
Wireless Sensor Networks can be used in many
different applications. Among those identified, a
WSN can be used for target field imaging, intrusion
detection, monitoring the weather, surveillance,
inventory control, or disaster management. Wireless
Sensor Networks can also be deployed in different
ways, either randomly or manually.
The nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks are small,
and may be used en masse. This has inherent
advantages and disadvantages.
Among the
advantages, because a large number of nodes can be
deployed and networked quickly, a Wireless Sensor
Network can be constructed to handle situations that
would not be possible using a more standard
computer network, such as disaster management.
However, it may be impossible for such a network to
contain a global addressing scheme for all the nodes
in a WSN, so conventional IP-based protocols may
be improbable. Another issue regarding a Wireless
Sensor Network is the efficiency of the individual
sensor nodes of the WSN. Because the nodes are
small, they are constrained in both power and
bandwidth.
Therefore, the utilization of both
resources is crucial to the success of the network.
As a general rule, Wireless Sensor Networks are
specific to a particular application. That is, two
distinct networks would be designed and
implemented to handle two distinct functions, such as
for inventory control and for weather monitoring. In
addition, most Wireless Sensor Networks are datacentric and position-based. The combination of the
data collected by a particular sensor node and its
position relative to other nodes is essential to the
success of the network.
There are several different methods in implementing
the infrastructure of a Wireless Sensor Network.
Most, if not all, of the routing protocols can be
classified as flat, hierarchical, or location-based. In
flat networks, all nodes are classified as equal and
share the roles across the network evenly. In
hierarchical networks, there is a “chain of command”,
whereas a set of nodes is responsible for collecting
and aggregating the data to be reported. A locationbased network aims to relay data to a desired region
of nodes relatively close to its position as opposed to
reporting to the entire network. Each method are best
suited for different situations, and the selection of a
particular method depends on the task at hand. These
protocols can be further divided into categories such
as multipath-based, query-based, negotiation-based,
QoS-based, and coherent-based.
III. APPROACH TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM
The primary research to solve this problem will be
obtained from the text used in class as well as
suggested readings provided by the professor.
Additional research will be conducted from the works
cited as sources used in the primary resources.
IV. LITERATURE SURVEY & REFERENCES
Alberto
Leon-Garcia
and
Indra
Widjaja,
Communication
Networks,
Fundamental
Concepts and Key Architectures, Second
Edition, McGraw Hill Higher Education, ISBN
0-07-246352.
Al-Karaki, J. N. and A. E. Kamal, "Routing
Techniques in Wireless Sensor Networks: A
Survey", to appear in IEEE Wireless
Communications.
Available
at
http://vulcan.ee.iastate.edu/~kamal/Docs/kk04.p
df
V. TIMELINE TO CONDUCT THE RESEARCH
The research for this paper will be conducted over a
period of four weeks, culminating with the
completion of this paper and an supplementary oral
presentation.