On the scaling laws of dense wireless sensor networks: the data gathering channel

摘要: We consider dense wireless sensor networks deployed to observe arbitrary random fields. The requirement is reconstruct an estimate of the field at a certain collector node. This creates many-to-one data gathering channel. In this note, we first characterize transport capacity subject constraint on total average power. particular, show that scales as Theta(log(N)) when number sensors N grows infinity and power remains fixed. then use result along with some information-theoretic tools derive sufficient necessary conditions set observable fields by networks. for can be modeled discrete sequences, form source/channel coding separation theorem. further one achieve any desired nonzero mean-square estimation error continuous, Gaussian, spatially bandlimited through scheme composed single-dimensional quantization, distributed Slepian-Wolf source coding, proposed antenna sharing strategy. Based our results, revisit earlier conclusions about feasibility applications using