Selecting Appropriate Multipath Routing in Wireless Sensor Networks for Improvisation of System’s Efficiency and Performance

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) comprise high-density tiny-sized sensor nodes with a restricted range of communication, whose main task is to sense the target phenomena. These nodes are generally of small size and have computation, communication and sensing capabilities. However, sensor nodes have limited bandwidth, power, memory, processing resources and limited lifetime which impose challenges in design of efficient and performance-based communication protocol. Most of the existing multipath routing techniques have been designed on the basis of single-path routing protocol without handling network congestion. In this scenario, a single-path routing is not efficient and is prone to failure, due to the low battery power constraint which effects network lifetime. To solve this problem, the multipath routing technique is used nowadays which improves network lifetime, load balancing and data reliability. Researchers still find it difficult to choose the most appropriate and efficient multipath routing protocol from the existing research work of WSNs. This research work carried out depicts a broad methodical literature analysis of multipath routing in the area of WSNs in specific. The methodical analysis of multipath routing includes multipath routing protocols, their benefits, quality of service (QoS) parameters and also highlights the objective behind the development of each protocol category. Detailed analysis of this research area will assist the researchers to analyze the significant attributes of multipath techniques and to choose the most appropriate technique for multipath routing. Future research issues and orientations have also been presented in this research work.