Energy Efficiency Comparison of MIMO-Based and Multihop Sensor Networks

• Published in: EURASIP journal on wireless communications and networking Vol. 2008; no. 1
• Main Authors: BRAVOS, George, KANATAS, Athanasios G
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sylvania, OH Hindawi Publishing Corporation 01-01-2008; Springer Nature B.V; SpringerOpen
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Detection, estimation, filtering, equalization, prediction; Energy efficiency; Exact sciences and technology; Information, signal and communications theory; Optimization algorithms; Services and terminals of telecommunications; Signal and communications theory; Signal, noise; Studies; Switching and signalling; Systems, networks and services of telecommunications; Telecommunications; Telecommunications and information theory; Telemetry. Remote supervision. Telewarning. Remote control; Wireless communications; Performance evaluation; MIMO system; Packet switching; Wireless telecommunication; Algorithm; Energy savings; Implementation; Remote sensing; Multihop network; Energy dissipation; Energetic efficiency; Analytical method; Wireless network; Minimum energy; Sensor array; Signal detection
• ISSN: 1687-1472; 1687-1499; 1687-1499
• DOI: 10.1155/2008/732145

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) demand the implementation of energy-aware techniques and low-complexity protocols in all layers. Recently, a MIMO-based structure has been proposed to offer enhanced energy savings in WSNs. In this paper, we examine and compare MIMO-based WSN with a multihop transmission in terms of energy efficiency. The results depend on the network density, the channel conditions, and the distance to the destination node. We reach analytical expressions to calculate threshold values of these parameters, which determine the areas where the MIMO-based structure outperforms multihop transmission. Moreover, we present a detailed analysis of the dissipated power during a sensor node_s operation, to prove that as microelectronics develops, the MIMO-based architecture will outperform the equivalent multihop structure for most of the cases examined. Finally, we implement a simple cooperative node selection algorithm to achieve higher energy gains in the MIMO approach, and we examine how this algorithm affects the calculated thresholds.