Energy Efficiency in Two-Tiered Wireless Sensor Networks

We study a two-tiered wireless sensor network (WSN) consisting of $N$ access points (APs) and $M$ base stations (BSs). The sensing data, which is distributed on the sensing field according to a density function $f$, is first transmitted to the APs and then forwarded to the BSs. Our goal is to find an optimal deployment of APs and BSs to minimize the average weighted total, or Lagrangian, of sensor and AP powers. For $M=1$, we show that the optimal deployment of APs is simply a linear transformation of the optimal $N$-level quantizer for density $f$, and the sole BS should be located at the geometric centroid of the sensing field. Also, for a one-dimensional network and uniform $f$, we determine the optimal deployment of APs and BSs for any $N$ and $M$. Moreover, to numerically optimize node deployment for general scenarios, we propose one- and two-tiered Lloyd algorithms and analyze their convergence properties. Simulation results show that, when compared to random deployment, our algorithms can save up to 79\% of the power on average.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure

Interference-Aware Scheduling for Connectivity in MIMO Ad Hoc Multicast Networks

We consider a multicast scenario involving an ad hoc network of co-channel MIMO nodes in which a source node attempts to share a streaming message with all nodes in the network via some pre-defined multi-hop routing tree. The message is assumed to be broken down into packets, and the transmission is conducted over multiple frames. Each frame is divided into time slots, and each link in the routing tree is assigned one time slot in which to transmit its current packet. We present an algorithm for determining the number of time slots and the scheduling of the links in these time slots in order to optimize the connectivity of the network, which we define to be the probability that all links can achieve the required throughput. In addition to time multiplexing, the MIMO nodes also employ beamforming to manage interference when links are simultaneously active, and the beamformers are designed with the maximum connectivity metric in mind. The effects of outdated channel state information (CSI) are taken into account in both the scheduling and the beamforming designs. We also derive bounds on the network connectivity and sum transmit power in order to illustrate the impact of interference on network performance. Our simulation results demonstrate that the choice of the number of time slots is critical in optimizing network performance, and illustrate the significant advantage provided by multiple antennas in improving network connectivity.Comment: 34 pages, 12 figures, accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, Dec. 201

Movement-Efficient Sensor Deployment in Wireless Sensor Networks With Limited Communication Range.

We study a mobile wireless sensor network (MWSN) consisting of multiple mobile sensors or robots. Three key factors in MWSNs, sensing quality, energy consumption, and connectivity, have attracted plenty of attention, but the interaction of these factors is not well studied. To take all the three factors into consideration, we model the sensor deployment problem as a constrained source coding problem. %, which can be applied to different coverage tasks, such as area coverage, target coverage, and barrier coverage. Our goal is to find an optimal sensor deployment (or relocation) to optimize the sensing quality with a limited communication range and a specific network lifetime constraint. We derive necessary conditions for the optimal sensor deployment in both homogeneous and heterogeneous MWSNs. According to our derivation, some sensors are idle in the optimal deployment of heterogeneous MWSNs. Using these necessary conditions, we design both centralized and distributed algorithms to provide a flexible and explicit trade-off between sensing uncertainty and network lifetime. The proposed algorithms are successfully extended to more applications, such as area coverage and target coverage, via properly selected density functions. Simulation results show that our algorithms outperform the existing relocation algorithms

A Study of Connectivity in MIMO Fading Ad-Hoc Networks

We investigate the connectivity of fading wireless ad-hoc networks with a pair of novel connectivity metrics. Our first metric looks at the problem of connectivity relying on the outage capacity of MIMO channels. Our second metric relies on a probabilistic treatment of the symbol error rates for such channels. We relate both capacity and symbol error rates to the characteristics of the underlying communication system such as antenna configuration,modulation, coding, and signal strength measured in terms of Signal-to-Interference-Noise-Ratio (SINR). For each metric of connectivity, we also provide a simplified treatment in the case of ergodic fading channels. In each case, we assume a pair of nodes are connected if their bi-directional measure of connectivity is better than a given threshold. Our analysis relies on the central limit theorem to approximate the distribution of the combined undesired signal affecting each link of an ad-hoc network as Gaussian. Supported by our simulation results, our analysis shows that (1) a measure of connectivity purely based on signal strength is not capable of accurately capturing the connectivity phenomenon, and (2) employing multiple antenna mobile nodes improves the connectivity of fading ad-hoc networks

A Study of Connectivity in MIMO Fading Ad-Hoc Networks

We investigate the connectivity of fading wireless ad-hoc networks with a pair of novel connectivity metrics. Our first metric looks at the problem of connectivity relying on the outage capacity of MIMO channels. Our second metric relies on a probabilistic treatment of the symbol error rates for such channels. We relate both capacity and symbol error rates to the characteristics of the underlying communication system such as antenna configuration,modulation, coding, and signal strength measured in terms of Signal-to-Interference-Noise-Ratio (SINR). For each metric of connectivity, we also provide a simplified treatment in the case of ergodic fading channels. In each case, we assume a pair of nodes are connected if their bi-directional measure of connectivity is better than a given threshold. Our analysis relies on the central limit theorem to approximate the distribution of the combined undesired signal affecting each link of an ad-hoc network as Gaussian. Supported by our simulation results, our analysis shows that (1) a measure of connectivity purely based on signal strength is not capable of accurately capturing the connectivity phenomenon, and (2) employing multiple antenna mobile nodes improves the connectivity of fading ad-hoc networks