A study on joint channel decoding using spatial correlation of sensor observations according to ADC bit levels

In densely deployed wireless sensor networks, observations of the sensor nodes are spatially correlated. In this paper, we study a joint channel decoding scheme utilizing bit correlation of the sensor observations according to bit levels of analog-digital converter (ADC). If sensor ADC output is interpreted as natural binary numeral, carry propagation may occur between adjacent ADC output values. Such carry propagation leads to the degradation of joint decoding gain. We focus on the use of Gray code for avoiding the carry propagation. The performance of our approach is demonstrated by simulations using sensor data from experiments in a real indoor environment.