PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF ROUTING PROTOCOLS FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a self-organizing, energy constrained ad hoc network consisting of specialized nodes called motes sensing some phenomenon in an area. WSN may use generic or specialized routing protocols with random node distribution and unpredictable sensing and transceiving patterns with the constraint of limited irreplaceable energy. This paper attempts to compare on-demand reactive routing protocol (AODV) against proactive routing protocol (DSDV). The performance is studied in terms of key performance metrics which include packet delivery fraction, normalized routing load, delay, maximum and average energy. The comparison and analysis is made using Network Simulator 2 (NS-2) with additional Mannasim capability using specialized energy models by varying area of node distribution and node density. The analysis unravels the specific applications for which each protocol is suited.