IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE-2016), December 23-25, 2016, Jaipur, India

A Survey of Routing Protocols in Wireless Sensor

Networks: Hierarchical Routing
Amanjot Singh Toor Dr. A.K. Jain
PhD Scholar Professor
Department of Instrumentation & Control Department of Instrumentation & Control
Dr. B.R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology Dr. B.R Ambedkar National Institute of Technology
Jalandhar, Punjab, India Jalandhar, Punjab, India
er.amanjot87@gmail.com jainak@nitj.ac.in

Abstract Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) is the most Proactive Routing Protocol
developing areas in many factors like environment & wildlife
monitoring, security & military surveillance, healthcare and Reactive Routing Protocol
many more. Also, routing protocols play a very important part in
Hybrid Routing Protocol
terms of efficiency in WSNs. Due to limitations of unreliable low
power links and resources between the sensor nodes; design of an Protocol Operation is used to describe the major
efficient routing protocol is a difficult problem. This paper has operational characteristics of routing protocols like pattern for
surveyed about Routing Techniques and basically about communication, next hop, and method of delivery, hierarchy,
Hierarchical based routing with its protocols like LEACH, and computation [4]. These are classified into the following;
TEEN, PEGASIS, SEP and DEEC. And then finally their
comparative study is provided. Negotiation Based Routing

Keywords Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), Base Station Multipath Based Routing
(BS), Sensor nodes (SNs), Cluster Head (CH), Routing Techniques,
Query Based Routing
Hierarchical Protocols.
QOS Based Routing
I. INTRODUCTION
WSNs are one of the rising areas due to the advancement Coherent & Non- Coherent Based Routing
of wireless technologies and embedded systems. Their
applications include monitoring, tracking, event detection, Routing Techniques in WSNs
surveillance, disaster management, preventive maintenance etc
[1, 2].
Routing is one of an interesting research issue in WSNs. Route Processing Protocol operation Network Structure
But it is a complex job to develop a routing protocol which is
efficient due to its inherent characteristics of WSNs like Proactive Negotiation Flat Network
highly dynamic network, application specific, limited energy, Based
storage and processing capability etc. Reactive Multipath Hierarchical
Network
Rest of the paper is structured as below; various routing Hybrid
techniques used in WSNs in Section II, followed by the Query
Location
Hierarchical based routing in section III & Section IV gives Based
the Comparative study of various Hierarchical routing QoS
Protocols. Finally Section V gives the Conclusion.
Coherent
II. ROUTING TECHNIQUES IN WSNS
Routing is used for discovering and maintaining the energy Fig. 1. WSNs Routing Techniques
efficient routes for data to provide energy efficient and reliable
communication from source to destination [3]. Fig. 1 shows Network Structure plays an important role in operation of
classification of various routing techniques used in WSNs [5- WSNs. It is used to define two main characteristics of a
8] in terms of Route Processing, Network Structure and network i.e. characteristics of BS and characteristics of SNs
Protocol Operation. [4]. These are classified into the following;
Route Processing means how a node finds out its route Flat Network Routing
from source to BS. These are classified into the following;
Hierarchical Network Routing
Location Based Routing

[978-1-5090-2807-8/16/$31.00 2016 IEEE]

 IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE-2016), December 23-25, 2016, Jaipur, India
III. HIERARCHICAL BASED ROUTING
Hierarchical based (also called cluster-based) routing is
considered as one of the most famous routing technique. A
Clustering hierarchical method for the WSNs topology breaks
the whole network of SNs into several areas called clusters
and each cluster has a CH (Fig. 2) [9]. The CH plays the role
of data aggregating and sending the aggregated and refined
data to the BS. A data transfer always takes place from a lower
clustered layer to a higher one.
Base Station (BS)
Cluster
Head Sensors Nodes (SNs)
(CH)
Cluster
Fig. 2. Hierarchical Cluster-based Model.
The hierarchical based routing is effectively used to
accomplish energy efficiency in WSNs [10]. Hierarchical
based routing generally uses 2-layer routing, which is [11];
one layer is for transferring data between CH and the BS; and
the other one is for transmission between CHs and member
nodes within the same cluster. High energy SNs is used as CH
to perform data aggregation inside each cluster wheras low-
energy SNs is put into sleep mode when they are not being
utilized (i.e. sending data).
Clustering in WSNs can be based on single-hop (Fig. 3)
and multi-hop communications (Fig. 4) [12].
Base Station (BS) Cluster Head
(CH)
Cluster
1
Sensor
Nodes
(SNs)
Fig. 3. Single-hop Communication from SNs To BS via CH
Both of these communications have their own merits as
well as demerits; like single-hop communication suffers from
energy loss problem as the distance increases whereas the
multi-hop communication suffers from the problem of energy
hole.
Cluster Base Station (BS) Cluster Head
(CH)
Sensor
Nodes (SNs)
Fig. 4. Multi-hop Communication from SNs To BS via CH
The major advantages of Hierarchical based routing are [13]
Energy utilization of each SN and its transmission cost
is reduced.
Network scalability improved.
It reduces the routing table size which is stored at each
SN.
Communication Bandwidth is conserve.
The chances of inter-cluster communications to CHs is
less and thus results in avoiding redundancy in
message exchange among SNs.
The time frame of the network operation is increased
by using various techniques of optimization.
The battery life of SN is enhanced by using various
optimizing techniques.
Various common types of Hierarchical-based routing
protocols are discussed below:
A. LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy
protocol)
LEACH [7, 13] is a clustering adaptive protocol proposed
by W. R. Heinzelman, et al and is a most recognized algorithm
for WSNs which minimizes energy dissipation of SNs. Here,
clusters are created depending upon the value of Received
Signal Strength (RSS) of every SNs and it uses CH as routers
to the BS, as illustrated in Fig. 5 [14].
LEACH uses random rotation of the SNs for evenly
distribution of energy dissipation which is required for a SN to
be CHs. After a number of simulations by the author, it was
concluded that only 5% of the total number of SNs will act as
CHs within the network. It partitions the whole sensor
network into many clusters and every cluster has a CH and the
run time of network is divided into rounds [15]. The CH is a
privileged node, and has responsibility of a scheduling in
 IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE-2016), December 23-25, 2016, Jaipur, India

Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) format. Another CH After being elected as CH, it broadcasts its status of being
responsibility is of sending aggregated information to the BS CH by using Carrier Sense Multiple Access (CSMA) Media
and it is sent as a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) Access Control (MAC) protocol. Each SN chooses their own
pattern so as to avoid interference. These two mechanisms CH on the basis of RSSI value offered by each CH. All SNs
used by LEACH as collision preventions, within each cluster send their willingness messages to their suitable CH using
(TDMA) and between clusters (CDMA). CSMA MAC protocol. Then CHs schedules all the SNs using
TDMA frame for data transmission.
Sensor Base Station (BS) Cluster Head In steady state phase, every SN forwards their date to the
Nodes (CH) respective CH in its allotted time frame. After that every CH
(SNs) combines and aggregates the collected information and
transferred that to the BS.
B. TEEN (Threshold Sensitive Energy Efficient Sensor
Network protocol)
TEEN [7, 8, 13] protocol is designed to sense the attributes
and respond suddenly. It is used for real time crucial
applications like intruder detection, explosive detection etc
Cluster and it uses data centric mechanism with hierarchical approach.
Its architecture is same as that of LEACH protocol which is
based on hierarchical clustering. Here CH does not send their
date directly to the BS, instead it sends from lower level CH to
Fig. 5. Description of LEACH
one level above CH in hierarchy and so on it reaches to the
The LEACH implementation process includes many sink. Fig. 7 shows how clustering is done in TEEN protocol
rounds and every round have 2 phases, I.e. set-up phase and and how data is transmitted to BS from lower level cluster to
steady data transmission phase. These are as discussed below: higher one.

In the set-up phase, clusters are formed and a CH is BS

elected at random for each cluster.
In the steady data transmission phase, data is transmitted
to the BS.
The illustration of the two phases is shown in Fig. 6 [14],
where the steady data transmission phase is broken into
frames, and every SN forwards their data to the CH once per
frame during their owed time slot.
Ordinary SNs
Set-up Steady-state
Low level CH
Clusters Slot for Slot for
formed node i node j High level CH

Frame
Fig. 6. Time Line operation of LEACH
In Set-up phase, the selection of CH is based on the
equation of threshold. Each SN generates an arbitrary random
value between 0 and 1, and if that value of SN is less that
threshold value then it will become a CH for that round.
Where P is the Probability of selection of CH,
r is the existing round
G is the group of SNs that have not been CH in the
current epoch.
Epoch means the number of rounds after which it became
again eligible for being CH.
Fig. 7. Clustering in TEEN
After the process of clustering, the CH broadcast two
threshold values to SN i.e.
Hard threshold and
Soft threshold [16]
Hard threshold reduces the amount of transmissions by
allowing the SNs to send data only to those sensing element
that are in their range of concern.
However, Soft threshold reduces the amount of
transmission by overcoming all other transmissions when
there is slight or no variation in the sensing attribute.
Here SNs will forward data in current round only, if, the
current sensed element value is larger than hard threshold and
if, the current sensed element value is different from previous
value by a value equal to or larger than soft threshold.
 IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE-2016), December 23-25, 2016, Jaipur, India
C. PEGASIS (Power- Efficient Gathering in Sensor
Information Systems)
PEGASIS [17] is a sequence (chain) based routing
protocol which is an improvement over LEACH, used to
enhance the network lifetime of WSNs.
In PEGASIS, SNs are distributed randomly over the entire
network field. Each SN transmits its data only to its closest
neighbor (Fig. 8) [18] by adjusting its transmitting power, so
that only the closest neighbor can heard it. Here SN calculates
its distance to the neighbor node via signal strength so as to
locate the closest SNs. With this, a chain is build from SN to
the BS via Greedy Algorithm. After that a node is elected as
leader randomly for transmitting the data from SNs to BS.
This approach is used to lower the Bandwidth and reduces the
overhead problem from the BS.
Base Station
(BS)
Leader Node
Sensor Node
Fig. 8. Description of PEGASIS
For data gathering in PEGASIS, each SN receives data to
one of its closest neighbor, fuses their own data and then
forward that to the next SN in the chain. Also, here a token
passing approach is being started by the leader SN to start the
transmission [19].
Hence in PEGASIS, every SN transmits and receives only
one packet in every round and also be the leader at least once
in n (Number of nodes) rounds.
D. SEP (Stable Election Protocol)
SEP [20, 21] in WSNs is used to show the impact of
energy heterogeneity of SNs that are hierarchically clustered.
Its main goal is to enhance the stability period and decrease
the instability period of Wireless Clustered Sensor Networks.
The SEP proposes that a CH is formed in each cluster on
the basis of weighted election probabilities of each SN energy
level. It also ensures that the CH is elected randomly depend
upon the energy of every SNs and assuring regular use of SNs
energy.
SEP was an enhancement over LEACH protocol, where
the capability of LEACH protocol is to build up a model
which provides extra energy into the network, and is the main
source of heterogeneity. The only difference is that in the SEP,
two types of SNs consisting of two different level of energy
and two level hierarchies were considered. An assumption is
that the SNs within this structure are fixed, and are sacttered
uniformally over the sensing area. In SEP, two types of SNs,
i.e., Advance SNs and Normal SNs are considered [22].
Advance SNs have time additional energy as compared than
Normal SNs. Also, SEP is an advancement over LEACH in
terms of formation of cluster by lessening the interval of
Advance SNs CH epoch. The weighted probability equation of
SEP for Normal nodes as well as for Advance nodes is
different, and therefore it gives two different threshold values
for the election of CH.
The threshold value for selection of Normal SNs as CH is
given by;
Where G' is set of Normal SNs which became CH
r is the existing round
Pnrm is the weighted probability for the Normal SNs and is
given by
The threshold value for selection of Advance SNs as CH is
given by;
Where G is set of Advance SNs which became
CH
r is the existing round
Padv is the weighted probability for the Advanced SNs and
is given by
And m is the proportion of the advanced SNs with times
additional energy than the normal SNs.
E. DEEC (Distributed Energy Efficient Clustering protocol)
DEEC [9, 23, 24] is based on clustering algorithm, where
the CHs are elected on the basis of equation of probability
which is the fraction of residual energy of every SN and the
average energy of the sensor network [26]. The rotating epoch
for every SN is different due to its initial and residual energy.
Here SNs having high initial and residual energy have more
probability to be CHs as compared to the low-energy SNs.
This theory sounds very similar to SEP, as the two schemes
adapt the rotating epoch (which is a set of rounds in a
network) of each SN to its energy. For this reason, DEEC
routing protocol can extend the network lifetime, mainly the
stable period. Furthermore, DEEC can also be considered
adequate and performs sound for the multi-level
heterogeneous sensor networks, in contrast to SEP which is
capable of working under the 2-level heterogeneous sensor
networks.
The probability threshold that each SN Si to be a CH in
every round, is as
 IEEE International Conference on Recent Advances and Innovations in Engineering (ICRAIE-2016), December 23-25, 2016, Jaipur, India

Substituting pi in T (Si) will give us the probability

threshold which is used to elect the CH.
Where (r) defines the average energy at round r,
and is given by
Where G is group of SNs that are suitable for being
CH at round r.
In the 2-level heterogeneous sensor networks [26],
weighted election probabilities taken for Normal SNs and for IV. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF HIERARCHICAL BASED
Advanced SNs are as follows ROUTING PROTOCOLS
Hierarchical routing protocols are used to provide less
interference and collision in the network and gave better
results. The comparative study of various Hierarchical based
routing protocols (LEACH, TEEN, SEP, DEEC, PEGASIS) is
shown in Table 1 below [12, 25-34].
V. CONCLUSION
Therefore pi is changed into
In this paper, various Routing Techniques with a focus on
Hierarchical based routing in WSNs have been studied. In
addition, a survey and comparative study of various
Hierarchical clustering routing protocols (LEACH, TEEN,
SEP, DEEC and PEGASIS) are done.
TABLE I. COMPARATIVE STUDY OF VARIOUS HIERARCHICAL ROUTING PROTOCOLS IN WSNS

Protocols
S.No. Parameters
LEACH TEEN PEGASIS SEP DEEC
1 Year 2000 2001 2002 2004 2006
2 Routing Type Proactive Reactive Reactive Reactive Proactive
3 Initial Energy of nodes Homogenous Homogenous Homogenous Heterogeneous Heterogeneous
4 Mobility of Nodes No No No No No
5 BS Position Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed Fixed
6 Hierarchical Level Single Single Multi-level Bi-level Multi-level
Residual Energy +
Threshold based Threshold based Threshold based on
7 CH Selection Randomly Average Energy of
Probability Probability Weighted Probability
Network
8 Data Aggregation Yes Yes No Yes Yes
9 Algorithm Complexity Low High High Very Low Very Low
10 Stability Medium High Low Medium High
11 Energy Efficiency Very Low Very High Poor Medium High
12 Scalability Very Poor Poor Very Large Medium High
13 Network Lifetime Poor Best Very Good Good Better
14 Delivery Delay Very Small Small Very Large Very Small Very Small
15 QoS No No No No No
16 Data Delivery Model Cluster Head Active Threshold Chain Based Cluster Head Cluster Head
17 Position Awareness No No No No No
18 Load Balancing Medium Good Medium Good Good

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