Capacity of cooperative sensor networks with sensor errors

The communication from a cooperative sensor network to a mobile access point is considered in this paper. Sensors are assumed to be informed with a global message, and some nodes are misinformed with random messages. Three system configurations are discussed based on whether a polling channel is implemented and whether an energy limit is imposed on individual sensors. The capacity of these system configurations are derived. It is shown that if a polling channel is implemented and there is no energy constraint on individual nodes, there is no rate loss with the presence of sensor errors. If there is no polling channel implemented and there is no energy constraint on individual nodes, the rate loss is proportional to the probability that a node is misinformed.