A Study on Hardware and Software Link Quality Metrics for Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Due to the lack of accurate evaluation of the transmission characteristics of the wireless communication links, routing algorithms in wireless sensor networks may result in poor network performance. In order to avoid sending packets over the unstable link, routing protocol has to rely on noble metrics to choose better routing path. Better estimation of link reliability between neighboring nodes could permit the selection of a more reliable route. Since the routing metrics play an important role as they have a direct impact on the efficiency and robustness of routing protocols. Different routing metrics will provide different performances to routing protocols when used to compute weight of paths. This paper presents a study on various hardware and software link quality metrics that help network protocol designers can choose an efficient Link Quality Estimator to develop reliable routing techniques for WMSNs. Additionally a classification tree of different routing metrics is presented which helps in understanding the strengths and weaknesses of these LQ metrics, thus enabling the designer of the routing protocol to make an informed choice.