Real-Time Routing Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless sensor networks can be termed as a new generation of distributed embedded systems that has a capability of meeting broad range of real-time applications. Examples include radiation monitoring, fire monitoring, border surveillance, and medical care to name but a few. Wireless sensor networks that are deployed in time/mission-critical applications with highly dynamic environments have to interact with the physical phenomenon under stringent timing constraints and severe resource limitations. For such real-time wireless sensor networks, designing and developing a real-time routing protocol that meets the required real-time guarantee of data packets communication is a stimulating field of study that raised many challenges and research issues.