Efficient Multiway Relaying for Data Sharing in Energy Harvesting Sensor Networks

摘要

In a wireless sensor network (WSN), sensors oftenneed to share their measurements for applications like distributedestimation and detection or data aggregation. Here, we suggestusing multiway relaying (MWR) for data sharing betweenenergy harvesting sensors that cannot directly communicate witheach other. We first start by studying the achievable data rate ofamplify-and-forward (AF) MWR for energy harvesting sensors. Then, we show that, by backing off the transmit power at thesensors, not only better energy efficiency and longer lifetime areachieved, but also the data sharing rate increases. Based on thisresult, we further improve the performance of AF MWR in theassumed WSN by smartly adjusting the transmit power at thesensors. Our power allocation is devised in a way to improvethe energy efficiency of MWR and increase the sum rate of datasharing between the sensors over the network lifetime. Simulationresults are presented to verify the enhancement achieved by usingour proposed power allocation technique.