Energy efficient routing in Wireless Sensor Networks: A survey

Technological advances in wireless communication paved way to the development of tiny low-cost, low-power and multifunctional sensor nodes in wireless sensor networks. Wireless Networks are becoming popular due to the concept of “3 any”- any person, anywhere and anytime. The design of sensor network is influenced by factors like scalability, energy consumption, environment etc. and depends on the application. Of the three activities: sensing, processing and communication, most of the energy is spent on communication purposes. Energy conservation is thus a dominant factor in wireless sensor networks. Routing strategy selection is very important for proper delivery of packets. Ongoing research aims in extending network lifetime by designing protocols that requires less energy during communication. An energy harvesting wireless sensor networks is a solution against the drainage of energy in battery powered networks since renewal of energy is too expensive. Energy harvesting make use of nodes that are able to harvest energy from the environment. This paper provides a survey on energy efficient routing in wireless sensor networks and introduces the concept of energy harvesting in wireless sensor networks.