Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consisting of hundreds or even thousands of
nodes, canbe used for a multitude of applications such as warfare intelligence or to
monitor the environment. A typical WSN node has a limited and usually an
irreplaceable power source and the efficient use of the available power is of utmost
importance to ensure maximum lifetime of eachWSNapplication. Each of the nodes
needs to transmit and communicate sensed data to an aggregation point for use by
higher layer systems. Data and message transmission among nodes collectively
consume the largest amount of energy available in WSNs. The network routing
protocols ensure that every message reaches thedestination and has a direct impact on
the amount of transmissions to deliver messages successfully. To this end, the
transmission protocol within the WSNs should be scalable, adaptable and optimized
to consume the least possible amount of energy to suite different network
architectures and application domains. The inclusion of mobile nodes in the WSNs
deployment proves to be detrimental to protocol performance in terms of nodes
energy efficiency and reliable message delivery. This thesis which proposes a novel
Mobile Data Collector based clustering routing protocol for WSNs is designed that
combines cluster based hierarchical architecture and utilizes three-tier multi-hop
routing strategy between cluster heads to base station by the help of Mobile Data
Collector (MDC) for inter-cluster communication. In addition, a Mobile Data
Collector based routing protocol is compared with Low Energy Adaptive Clustering
Hierarchy and A Novel Application Specific Network Protocol for Wireless Sensor
Networks routing protocol. The protocol is designed with the following in mind:
minimize the energy consumption of sensor nodes, resolve communication holes
issues, maintain data reliability, finally reach tradeoff between energy efficiency and
latency in terms of End-to-End, and channel access delays. Simulation results have
shown that the Mobile Data Collector based clustering routing protocol for WSNs
could be easily implemented in environmental applications where energy efficiency of
sensor nodes, network lifetime and data reliability are major concerns
