Decision Fusion over Noncoherent Fading Multiaccess Channels

In this paper, we consider a situation where a number of remote sensors is linked to a decision fusion center by a noncoherent fading multiaccess channel. Each sensor makes a binary local decision and communicates it to the fusion center. The signaling is designed such that a local sensor transmits a pulse when its decision is positive and remains silent when its decision is negative. The optimal fusion rule is derived which takes into account the fading channel statistics. And the asymptotic detection performance as the number of sensors goes large is studied. Compared with the conventional parallel access scheme, the multiaccess scheme will improve the detection performance when the noise level at the fusion center is high.