A Communication Approach for Parallel Data Fusion in IEEE 802.15.4 Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper is proposed a communication approach for implementation of parallel data fusion techniques in IEEE 802.15.4 star networks. In the approach, the network configures itself in order to adjust the number of messages sent periodically by sensor nodes, establishing a trade-off between the number of sent messages and the dependability of data fusion in base station. Conventional techniques for data fusion can be employed using the proposed approach, such as Dempster-Shafer or Kalman filter. A prototype was implemented and experiments were carried out to evaluate the approach. Results showed the effectiveness of the proposal.