Performance analysis of efficient coding schemes for wireless sensor networks

Energy consumption in sensor nodes and Link reliability are two of the major challenges in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). The data exchanged between nodes and base station are vulnerable to corruption by errors induced by random noise, signal fading and other factors. In this regard, error control coding (ECC) is an efficient technique used to increase link reliability and to reduce the required transmitted power. In this context, the choice of energy efficient ECC with a suitable modulation scheme is a crucial task at the link and physical layer of wireless sensor networks to improve their lifetime. Since the WSNs are energy constraint in nature, both the probability of bit error rate (BER) and power consumption have to be taken into account. A performance analysis of error control coding schemes referring to BPSK modulation through a Gaussian channel (AWGN) is presented in this paper. Our results show that the RS(31,21) outperforms other ECC schemes and can be the optimal choice for wireless sensor network environment.