12,062 research outputs found
One-bit Distributed Sensing and Coding for Field Estimation in Sensor Networks
This paper formulates and studies a general distributed field reconstruction
problem using a dense network of noisy one-bit randomized scalar quantizers in
the presence of additive observation noise of unknown distribution. A
constructive quantization, coding, and field reconstruction scheme is developed
and an upper-bound to the associated mean squared error (MSE) at any point and
any snapshot is derived in terms of the local spatio-temporal smoothness
properties of the underlying field. It is shown that when the noise, sensor
placement pattern, and the sensor schedule satisfy certain weak technical
requirements, it is possible to drive the MSE to zero with increasing sensor
density at points of field continuity while ensuring that the per-sensor
bitrate and sensing-related network overhead rate simultaneously go to zero.
The proposed scheme achieves the order-optimal MSE versus sensor density
scaling behavior for the class of spatially constant spatio-temporal fields.Comment: Fixed typos, otherwise same as V2. 27 pages (in one column review
format), 4 figures. Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing.
Current version is updated for journal submission: revised author list,
modified formulation and framework. Previous version appeared in Proceedings
of Allerton Conference On Communication, Control, and Computing 200
The Sensing Capacity of Sensor Networks
This paper demonstrates fundamental limits of sensor networks for detection
problems where the number of hypotheses is exponentially large. Such problems
characterize many important applications including detection and classification
of targets in a geographical area using a network of sensors, and detecting
complex substances with a chemical sensor array. We refer to such applications
as largescale detection problems. Using the insight that these problems share
fundamental similarities with the problem of communicating over a noisy
channel, we define a quantity called the sensing capacity and lower bound it
for a number of sensor network models. The sensing capacity expression differs
significantly from the channel capacity due to the fact that a fixed sensor
configuration encodes all states of the environment. As a result, codewords are
dependent and non-identically distributed. The sensing capacity provides a
bound on the minimal number of sensors required to detect the state of an
environment to within a desired accuracy. The results differ significantly from
classical detection theory, and provide an ntriguing connection between sensor
networks and communications. In addition, we discuss the insight that sensing
capacity provides for the problem of sensor selection.Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, November 200
Distributed Representation of Geometrically Correlated Images with Compressed Linear Measurements
This paper addresses the problem of distributed coding of images whose
correlation is driven by the motion of objects or positioning of the vision
sensors. It concentrates on the problem where images are encoded with
compressed linear measurements. We propose a geometry-based correlation model
in order to describe the common information in pairs of images. We assume that
the constitutive components of natural images can be captured by visual
features that undergo local transformations (e.g., translation) in different
images. We first identify prominent visual features by computing a sparse
approximation of a reference image with a dictionary of geometric basis
functions. We then pose a regularized optimization problem to estimate the
corresponding features in correlated images given by quantized linear
measurements. The estimated features have to comply with the compressed
information and to represent consistent transformation between images. The
correlation model is given by the relative geometric transformations between
corresponding features. We then propose an efficient joint decoding algorithm
that estimates the compressed images such that they stay consistent with both
the quantized measurements and the correlation model. Experimental results show
that the proposed algorithm effectively estimates the correlation between
images in multi-view datasets. In addition, the proposed algorithm provides
effective decoding performance that compares advantageously to independent
coding solutions as well as state-of-the-art distributed coding schemes based
on disparity learning
Gossip Algorithms for Distributed Signal Processing
Gossip algorithms are attractive for in-network processing in sensor networks
because they do not require any specialized routing, there is no bottleneck or
single point of failure, and they are robust to unreliable wireless network
conditions. Recently, there has been a surge of activity in the computer
science, control, signal processing, and information theory communities,
developing faster and more robust gossip algorithms and deriving theoretical
performance guarantees. This article presents an overview of recent work in the
area. We describe convergence rate results, which are related to the number of
transmitted messages and thus the amount of energy consumed in the network for
gossiping. We discuss issues related to gossiping over wireless links,
including the effects of quantization and noise, and we illustrate the use of
gossip algorithms for canonical signal processing tasks including distributed
estimation, source localization, and compression.Comment: Submitted to Proceedings of the IEEE, 29 page
High-resolution distributed sampling of bandlimited fields with low-precision sensors
The problem of sampling a discrete-time sequence of spatially bandlimited
fields with a bounded dynamic range, in a distributed,
communication-constrained, processing environment is addressed. A central unit,
having access to the data gathered by a dense network of fixed-precision
sensors, operating under stringent inter-node communication constraints, is
required to reconstruct the field snapshots to maximum accuracy. Both
deterministic and stochastic field models are considered. For stochastic
fields, results are established in the almost-sure sense. The feasibility of
having a flexible tradeoff between the oversampling rate (sensor density) and
the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) precision, while achieving an exponential
accuracy in the number of bits per Nyquist-interval per snapshot is
demonstrated. This exposes an underlying ``conservation of bits'' principle:
the bit-budget per Nyquist-interval per snapshot (the rate) can be distributed
along the amplitude axis (sensor-precision) and space (sensor density) in an
almost arbitrary discrete-valued manner, while retaining the same (exponential)
distortion-rate characteristics. Achievable information scaling laws for field
reconstruction over a bounded region are also derived: With N one-bit sensors
per Nyquist-interval, Nyquist-intervals, and total network
bitrate (per-sensor bitrate ), the maximum pointwise distortion goes to zero as
or . This is shown to be possible
with only nearest-neighbor communication, distributed coding, and appropriate
interpolation algorithms. For a fixed, nonzero target distortion, the number of
fixed-precision sensors and the network rate needed is always finite.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures; paper withdrawn from IEEE Transactions on Signal
Processing and re-submitted to the IEEE Transactions on Information Theor
Distributed Detection and Estimation in Wireless Sensor Networks
In this article we consider the problems of distributed detection and
estimation in wireless sensor networks. In the first part, we provide a general
framework aimed to show how an efficient design of a sensor network requires a
joint organization of in-network processing and communication. Then, we recall
the basic features of consensus algorithm, which is a basic tool to reach
globally optimal decisions through a distributed approach. The main part of the
paper starts addressing the distributed estimation problem. We show first an
entirely decentralized approach, where observations and estimations are
performed without the intervention of a fusion center. Then, we consider the
case where the estimation is performed at a fusion center, showing how to
allocate quantization bits and transmit powers in the links between the nodes
and the fusion center, in order to accommodate the requirement on the maximum
estimation variance, under a constraint on the global transmit power. We extend
the approach to the detection problem. Also in this case, we consider the
distributed approach, where every node can achieve a globally optimal decision,
and the case where the decision is taken at a central node. In the latter case,
we show how to allocate coding bits and transmit power in order to maximize the
detection probability, under constraints on the false alarm rate and the global
transmit power. Then, we generalize consensus algorithms illustrating a
distributed procedure that converges to the projection of the observation
vector onto a signal subspace. We then address the issue of energy consumption
in sensor networks, thus showing how to optimize the network topology in order
to minimize the energy necessary to achieve a global consensus. Finally, we
address the problem of matching the topology of the network to the graph
describing the statistical dependencies among the observed variables.Comment: 92 pages, 24 figures. To appear in E-Reference Signal Processing, R.
Chellapa and S. Theodoridis, Eds., Elsevier, 201
Decentralized Estimation over Orthogonal Multiple-access Fading Channels in Wireless Sensor Networks - Optimal and Suboptimal Estimators
Optimal and suboptimal decentralized estimators in wireless sensor networks
(WSNs) over orthogonal multiple-access fading channels are studied in this
paper. Considering multiple-bit quantization before digital transmission, we
develop maximum likelihood estimators (MLEs) with both known and unknown
channel state information (CSI). When training symbols are available, we derive
a MLE that is a special case of the MLE with unknown CSI. It implicitly uses
the training symbols to estimate the channel coefficients and exploits the
estimated CSI in an optimal way. To reduce the computational complexity, we
propose suboptimal estimators. These estimators exploit both signal and data
level redundant information to improve the estimation performance. The proposed
MLEs reduce to traditional fusion based or diversity based estimators when
communications or observations are perfect. By introducing a general message
function, the proposed estimators can be applied when various analog or digital
transmission schemes are used. The simulations show that the estimators using
digital communications with multiple-bit quantization outperform the estimator
using analog-and-forwarding transmission in fading channels. When considering
the total bandwidth and energy constraints, the MLE using multiple-bit
quantization is superior to that using binary quantization at medium and high
observation signal-to-noise ratio levels
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