Rev. Fac. Ing. Univ. Antioquia N.° 52 pp. 185-195. Marzo, 2010 Performance analysis of routing strategies for wireless sensor networks Análisis del funcionamiento de estrategias de enrutamiento para redes de sensores inalámbricos Raúl Aquino-Santos*1, Luis A. Villaseñor-González2, Víctor Rangel Licea3, Omar Álvarez Cárdenas1, Arthur Edwards Block1 1Facultad de Telemática, Universidad de Colima, Av. Universidad 333, C. P. 28040, Colima, México 2CICESE Research Centre, Carr. Tijuana-Ensenada, km 113, Ensenada, B. C. México 3Departamento de Telecomunicaciones, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), C. P. 04510, México, D. F (Recibido el 11 de mayo de 2009. Aceptado el 23 de septiembre de 2009) Abstract This paper presents a performance analysis of source, shortest path, hierarchical and geographical routing strategies, which are the three most commonly, implemented strategies employed by wireless ad-hoc and sensor networks. Source routing was selected because it does not require costly topology maintenance, while shortest path routing was chosen because of its simple discovery routing approach and hierarchical and geographical routing was elected because it uses location information via Global Positioning System (GPS). Many current applications require precise knowledge of physical positioning information, particularly in the areas of health, military, agriculture, robotics, and environmental and structural monitoring. Additionally, the shortest path routing technique was chosen because it is employed in several data-centric wireless sensor network algorithms such as Direct Diffusion, Rumor Routing, Gradient-Based Routing and the ZigBee standard. The performance of these three routing strategies is evaluated by providing simulation results based on latency, End to End Delay (EED), packet delivery ratio, routing overhead, overhead and routing load. Source routing only improves shortest path and hierarchical and geographical routing in terms of latency, hierarchical and geographical routing performs the worst because it must send hello packets in order to acquire and transmit location * Autor de correspondencia: teléfono: + 52 + 3 + 126 10 75, correo electrónico: [email protected] (R. Santos) 185 Rev. Fac. Ing. Univ. Antioquia N.° 52. Marzo 2010 information. However, despite these significant disadvantages, hierarchical and geographical routing remains the routing option most often used in health, military, agriculture, robotic, and environmental and structural monitoring. ----- Keywords: Wireless sensor networks, multi-hop networks, unicast routing, hierarchical and flat routing mechanisms for wireless sensor networks Resumen Este trabajo presenta el análisis de funcionamiento de estrategias de enrutamiento de fuente, de la trayectoria más corta, jerárquica y geográfica, las cuales son tres de las estrategias más comúnmente implementadas para redes ad hoc y de sensores. Enrutamiento de fuente se seleccionó debido a que no requiere un mantenimiento topológico costoso, mientras el enrutamiento de la trayectoria más corta fue elegido por su simplicidad en el descubrimiento de la ruta y la estrategia de enrutamiento jerárquica y geográfica fue seleccionada debido a que utiliza información de un sistema de posicionamiento global (GPS). Muchas aplicaciones actuales requieren el conocimiento preciso de la posición física, particularmente en las áreas de salud, militar, agricultura, robótica y monitoreo estructural y ambiental. Adicionalmente, la técnica de enrutamiento de trayectoria más corta fue seleccionada por que se emplea en algoritmos de redes de sensores inalámbricos centrados en datos, tales como: Difusión Directa, Enrutamiento por Rumor, Enrutamiento basado en Gradientes y el Estándar ZigBEE. El funcionamiento de estas tres estrategias de enrutamiento se evalúa a través de simulaciones y en términos de latencia, retardo punto a punto, tasa de entrega de paquetes, sobre procesamiento de enrutamiento, sobre procesamiento general y la carga de enrutamiento. ----- Palabras clave: Redes de sensores inalámbricos, redes multi- saltos, enrutamiento unicast. mecanismos de enrutamiento para redes de sensores inalámbricos Introduction relatively limited area, it needs to be connected with other nodes in a coordinated fashion to Recent advances in micro-electro-mechanical form a sensor network (SN), which can provide systems (MEMS) technology have made large amounts of detailed information about a the deployment of wireless sensor nodes a given geographic area. Consequently, a wireless reality [1, 2], in part, because they are small, sensor network (WSN) can be described as a inexpensive and energy efficient. Each node collection of intercommunicated wireless sensor of a sensor network consists of three basic nodes which coordinate to perform a specific subsystems: a sensor subsystem to monitor action. Unlike traditional wireless networks, local environmental parameters, a processing WSNs depend on dense deployment and subsystem to give computation support to coordination to synchronously carry out their the node, and a communication subsystem to task. Wireless sensor nodes measure conditions provide wireless communications to exchange in the environment surrounding them and then information with neighboring nodes. Because transform these measurements into signals that each individual sensor node can only cover a can be processed to reveal specific information 186 Performance analysis of routing strategies for wireless sensor networks about phenomena located within a coverage area unit is responsible for collecting and processing around these sensor nodes. signals transmitted from sensors and forwarding them to the network. The transmission unit Examples of WSN applications include provides the signal transfer medium from sensors environmental monitoring –which involves to the exterior world or computer network. It also monitoring air, soil and water, condition-based has a communication mechanism to establish and maintenance, habitat monitoring (determining the maintain the WSN, which is usually ad-hoc. The plant and animal species population and behavior), power supply unit consists of a battery and a dc-dc seismic detection, military surveillance, inventory converter that powers the node (Figure 1). tracking, smart spaces, etc. [3, 4]. Despite their many diverse applications, WSNs pose a number of unique technical challenges due to the following Position finding system Mobilizer factors: fault tolerance (robustness), scalability, production costs, operating environment, Processor Sensor ADC Transceiver sensor network topology, hardware constraint, Storage transmission media and power consumption. Power unit Power generator To date, the ZigBee Alliance is developing a communication standard for WSNs to support Figure 1 Sensor node components low-cost, low-power consumption, two-way wireless communications. Solutions adopting the Sensor networks are generally deployed into an ZigBee standard will be embedded in consumer unplanned infrastructure where there is no a priori electronics, home and building automation, knowledge of their specific location. The resulting industrial controls, PC peripherals, medical problem of estimating the spatial coordinates sensor applications, toys and games [5]. of the node is referred to as location. Most of the proposed localization techniques today Many researchers are currently engaged in depend on recursive trilateration/multilateration developing strategies to meet these many diverse techniques [8]. Routing in WSNs is one of requirements. This paper focuses on a performance the most challenging tasks due to the inherent analysis of three basic strategies which are characteristics that distinguish these networks commonly used in routing protocols in wireless from other wireless networks such as mobile ad- ad-hoc and sensor networks. The remainder of hoc or cellular networks. First, due to the relatively the paper is organized as follows: First, a brief large number of sensor nodes, it is not possible to overview of wireless sensor network technology build a global addressing scheme. Thus, traditional is presented. Then, various routing protocols that IP-based protocols are not recommended for WSN deal with state-of-the-art routing techniques for use. Furthermore, sensor nodes that are deployed wireless sensor networks are described. Next, in an ad-hoc manner need to be self-organizing details about the ZigBee architecture the scenario as the ad-hoc deployment of these nodes requires simulated are introduced. Finally, a summary of the system to establish connections and cope our work and future research is presented. with the resultant nodal distribution, particularly because the operation of sensor networks is largely Wireless sensor network technology unattended. In WSNs, obtaining data is sometimes Sensors are devices that produce a measurable more important than knowing the specific Id of response to changes in specific physical conditions the originating node. Because the data collected like temperature and pressure. Basically, each by many sensors in WSNs is typically based on a sensor node is comprised of a sensing, processing, common phenomenon, there is a high probability transmission and power unit [6, 7]. The processing that this data has some degree of redundancy. Data redundancy needs to be exploited by the routing 187 Rev. Fac. Ing. Univ. Antioquia N.° 52. Marzo 2010 protocol to optimize energy and bandwidth are reached, or the destination of the packet is the utilization. node