Abstract

Q. Zhao and L. Tong
"Energy-Efficient Information Retrieval for Correlated Source Reconstruction in Sensor Networks"
Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications , December, 2004.
 
We consider information retrieval in a wireless sensor network deployed for the reconstruction of a spatially correlated signal field. Referred to as QUality-of-service specific Information REtrieval (QUIRE), the proposed protocol optimizes the network performance under the metric of information rate per Joule while ensuring a given QoS. Based on the density of sensor deployment and the QoS specified by the maximum distortion for reconstructing the signal field, QUIRE partitions the sensor network into disjoint and equal-sized cells. The cell size is chosen as such that the signal field within a cell can be reconstructed for the given QoS from one sample collected from this cell. By employing opportunistic carrier sensing and an optimal cell activation scheme, QUIRE completely eliminates redundant transmissions and fully exploits the channel reception capability in a fading environment.