A Survey on Multipath Routing Protocols for QoS Assurances in Real-Time Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

The vision of wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSNs) is to provide real-time multimedia applications using wireless sensors deployed for long-term usage. Quality of service assurances for both best effort data and real-time multimedia applications introduced new challenges in prioritizing multipath routing protocols in WMSNs. Multipath routing approaches with multiple constraints have received considerable research interest. In this paper, a comprehensive survey of both best effort data and real-time multipath routing protocols for WMSNs is presented. Results of a preliminary investigation into design issues affecting the development of strategic multipath routing protocols that support multimedia data in WMSNs are also presented and discussed from the network application perspective.