A survey on routing in wireless sensor networks

One of the most important issues in wireless sensor networks is data delivery service between sensors and the data collection unit (called sink). Although sensor networks and mobile ad hoc networks are similar to some extent, they are radically distinct in many aspects. Sensor networks have many unique features, making them more challenging and need further research efforts. The existing routing protocols for sensor networks can be classified as indicator-based and indicator-free. In this survey, we make a comparative study of these protocols. Open issues and research directions are pointed out as guidelines for our future work.