Energy-Efficient Cooperative Communication in a Clustered Wireless Sensor Network

• Published in: IEEE transactions on vehicular technology 2008-11, Vol.57 (6), p.3618-3628
• Main Authors: Zhong Zhou, Zhong Zhou, Shengli Zhou, Shengli Zhou, Shuguang Cui, Shuguang Cui, Jun-Hong Cui, Jun-Hong Cui
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Allocations; Antenna arrays; Applied sciences; Array signal processing; Batteries; Block codes; Clustered wireless sensor networks; Clustering; Clusters; Coding, codes; Connection and protection apparatus; cooperative communication; Decoding; Electrical engineering. Electrical power engineering; Electrical power engineering; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Error analysis; Error detection; Exact sciences and technology; Information, signal and communications theory; Networks; Operation. Load control. Reliability; Power networks and lines; relay; Relays; Sensors; Services and terminals of telecommunications; Signal and communications theory; Studies; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Telemetry. Remote supervision. Telewarning. Remote control; Wireless communication; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 0018-9545; 1939-9359
• DOI: 10.1109/TVT.2008.918730

In this paper, we consider a clustered wireless sensor network where sensors within each cluster relay data packets to nearby clusters using cooperative communications. We propose a cooperative transmission scheme based on distributed space-time block coding and conduct a systematic analysis on the resulting energy consumption. Compared with existing work, our distinctions are twofold: (1) Only sensors that can correctly decode received packets participate in the cooperative transmission, where the number of cooperating nodes depends on both channel and noise realizations; and (2) we use packet-error-rate-based analysis rather than symbol-error-rate-based analysis. This is more realistic since error detection is usually done at the packet level via, e.g., cyclic-redundancy-check codes. Based on the analysis, we further minimize the overall energy consumption by power allocation between the intracluster and intercluster transmissions. With numerical methods, we investigate how energy consumption is affected by the transmit power allocation, the total number of sensors in a cluster, the end-to-end packet error rate requirement, and the relative magnitudes between the intracluster and intercluster distances. Comparisons with direct (noncooperative) transmission schemes demonstrate the significant energy-saving advantage of the proposed cooperative scheme.