A Generic Analytical Model of Packet Combining in Wireless Sensor Networks

Simple packet combining (SPaC) is a recently proposed novel error-correction scheme for wireless sensor networks, whose excellent performance in noisy wireless transmissions was illustrated mainly through the empirical results in previous study. In this paper, we attempt to develop a generic analytical model to theoretically investigate the reliability and performance of SPaC over the entire spectrum of wireless channel conditions. In this context, we provide insights into the SPaC and show under what conditions the original simplified model in the previous work would be applicable. The new analytical modeling of SPaC is also demonstrated via the quantitative comparison of the performance of SPaC with that of the commonly used ARQ scheme. Our theoretical analysis is helpful in fundamental understanding of the performance of SPaC under various wireless channel conditions.