ISSN : 0976-8491 (Online) | ISSN : 2229-4333 (Print) IJCST Vol.

6, Issue 1, Jan - March 2015

Wireless Sensor Networks – Scalability and

Performance Issues: A Review
1
Noufal K.P
1
Research Scholar, Research and Development Centre Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
1
Dept. of Computer Science, NAM College Kallikkandy, Kannur, Kerala, India

Abstract
A Wireless sensor Network is an organized collection of a large
number of small nodes with a capability of sensing, measuring
and computing. These networks are mostly used for tracking,
monitoring and controlling. The WSNs collect information from
unattended locations and disseminate information to a specific
user depending on the requirement. Data are routed amongst
the nodes by using an appropriate routing technique. A number
of factors affect the design of the routing protocols. Scalability
one such important factor which influence the routing protocols.
Scalability is that increase in the number of nodes after the WSN
was established. Whether or not the WSN support the expansion is
a very important factor in the design of the protocol. The routing
protocols consider the sensor node characteristics in the design
of the protocols. A routing protocol is said to be good when it is
scalable and adaptive to the changes made in the topology. The
protocols must work intact even though the size of network grows
and the workload is increased.
nodes acquire data when it is necessary and crucial. The nodes
receive or transmit only when it is inevitable. A WSN should self
configure and robust to topological changes.
II. Data Dissemination in WSNs
Keeping the low power back up of the nodes maximum care must
be taken while disseminating data to various nodes in the WSN.
In the conventional way of data dissemination, the nodes directly
communicate with the base station hence the power consumption
is very high and is not good. Another way of communication is
multi hop method in which the data is transmitted through some
intermediate nodes and the power consumption here also is very
high.

Keywords
Scalability, Routing, Routing Protocol

I. Introduction
A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a wireless network consisting
of spatially distributed autonomous devices using sensors to
cooperatively monitor physical or environmental conditions, such
as temperature, sound, vibration, pressure, motion or pollutants,
at different locations. A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) consists
of base stations and a number of wireless sensors (nodes).

Fig. 2:

Direct communication of all the individual nodes with the base

Fig. 1:
These sensors work with each other to sense some physical
phenomenon and then the information gathered is processed to
get relevant results. Wireless sensor networks consists of protocols
and algorithms with self-organizing capabilities. Wireless sensor
networks mainly use broadcast communication. Unlike ad hoc
networks wireless sensor networks are limited by sensors limited
power, energy and computational capability. The modes possess
low battery life and least processing capability and minimum
bandwidth and range. In WSNs sensing data and processing are
key features. The nodes are very densely deployed and normally
the communication is in nearest neighbor mode. One disadvantage
is that the nodes are more susceptible for failure and operated
on strict energy constraints. The data from a large number of
nodes is collected generally by the base station. Hence the data
transmission is many to one against peer to peer. The nodes are
powered through battery hence any operation by the node take it
near to death. Keeping the importance of life time of the nodes,
the nodes will be kept in sleep mode when they are idle and the
station can be avoided by clustering the nodes into various clusters
and identifying one particular node in all the clusters as cluster
head. From the above figure , it is understandable that data can
be transmitted to the base station from a few number of nodes
which are identified as cluster heads after collecting data from
the nodes in respective clusters.
III. Routing Protocols in WSNs
Routing in WSNs is different when compared with other networks.
In WSNs the wireless links are not so reliable, the nodes may fail
and the protocols should meet the power saving requirements.
Routing in WSNs is challenging because the capabilities of the
sensor nodes is very much limited. The sensor nodes communicate
in a short distance through a wireless medium and cooperate to
accomplish a common task.
In the Location based protocols, sensor nodes are identified by
the location address of the respective nodes. This information is
required to calculate the distance between two nodes. In location
based transmission each sensor node send its data independently.
In Data centric transmission, when a node need to send data to
the sink, the intermediate nodes perform some data aggregation

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IJCST Vol. 6, Issue 1, Jan - March 2015 ISSN : 0976-8491 (Online) | ISSN : 2229-4333 (Print)

activity and finally transmit data to the sink. So that the power
consumption by individual nodes is reduced. In the Hierarchical
protocols the nodes are clustered and the transmission is done
through the cluster head so that the power consumption is reduced.
The mobility based protocols guarantee the delivery of data from
source to the mobile sinks. In multipath protocols the data is
transmitted from source to the sink in two different ways 1) single
path and multipath. In single path routing each node transmit the
data to the sink through a shortest path from source to the sink
where as in the multipath routing the a number of shortest paths will
be found and the data will be evenly distributed transmitted to the
sink. In the heterogeneity protocols use line powered and battery
powered sensors. The QoS based protocols bring out balance
between QoS and energy consumption. One important objective
of the routing protocol for WSN is to keep the sensors alive for
longer time. All these protocols generally consider classification
criteria which include information like location information,
network layering and in-network processing, data centricity, path
redundancy, network dynamics, QoS requirements, and network
heterogeneity. The performance of the routing protocols can be
measured using the parameters like Network delay, Throughput,
success rate, latency, Energy consumed and Life time.
III. Scalability of WSNs
Scalability is very important and crucial issue in the design of
routing protocols for WSNs. A routing protocol is considered
to be good and effective if it is scalable to the changes in the
topology of the network. The protocol should withstand and
perform well with changes that may occur from time to time in
the WSN. The WSN is said to be scalable if it accommodate more
nodes at a later stage after the design. The protocols for WSNs
should perform well even on the event of growth in the number
of nodes or the workload on the network increases. A surevy and
review on various protocols in the context of increase of the size
of the network revealed that the Beacon Vector routing protocol
(BVR) proved good for the performance parameter success rate
compared to PGR and flooding protocols over different network
sizes. The BVR protocol has shown good throughput compared
to Flooding and PGR protocols when the number of nodes in
the WSN is increased. With the increasing network size, when
the the performance parameter Latency rate is considered PGR
protocol gave a lower latency compared to flooding protocol.
When the number of nodes in the network increases, the energy
consumption in BVR protocol is the minimum compared to all
other protocols.
Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, September 2005, [Online]
Available: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk.
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NOUFAL.K.P, Research Scholar,
Research and Development Centre
Bharathiar University, Coimbatore
AND Department of Computer
Science, NAM College Kallikkandy,
Kannur, Kerala, India.

Conclusion
In this work we have conducted a review of various protocols
with respect to the scalability of the WSN and observed that the
BVR protocol is the efficient protocol for scalability. We made
a critical review of various performance parameters and revied
their role in the performance of the WSN protocols.

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