A Survey on Cluster Based Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor Networks

Latest advancements in micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS) and wireless communication technology, opens the way for the growth in applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Wireless sensor network is comprised of huge number of small and cheap devices known as sensor nodes. The sensor nodes communicate together by many wireless strategies and these communication strategies are administered by routing protocols. Performance of sensor networks largely depends on the routing protocols, which are application based. Keeping this in mind, we have carried out extensive survey on WSN routing protocols. Based on structure of network, routing protocols in WSN can be broadly classified into three categories: flat routing, hierarchical or cluster based routing, and location based routing. Due to certain advantages, clustering is flattering as an active stem in routing technology. In this paper, authors have been reported a comprehensive survey on cluster based routing protocols in wireless sensor networks. We outline the merits and limitations of the clustering schemes in WSNs, and propose a taxonomy of cluster based routing methods. Finally, we summarize and conclude the paper with some future directions. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier BV.