Using MIMO Techniques to Enhance Communication Among Static and Mobile Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks are evolving to hybridnetworks in which static and mobile sensor nodes cooperate in order to address challenging requirements imposed by new emerging applications. However, due to the ad hoc nature of the network and especially to resources constraints of the sensor nodes, this cooperation is not trivial, requiring a number of retransmissions thus wasting precious resources. In this paper the use of cooperative multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques is proposed to overcome transmission problems, ensuring a reliable and more efficient communication link with less retransmissions. Extensive simulation experiments support the proposal, and the results highlight the benefits in using MIMO to deliver messages from static to mobile nodes in wireless sensor networks.