Cooperative MIMO precoders for energy-efficient transmission in wireless sensor network

Energy-efficient data transmission is one of the key factors for wireless sensor networks (WSN). By allowing sensor nodes in close proximity to cooperate in transmission, and by introducing a powerful data gathering node (DGN) equipped with an antenna array to collect data, a virtual multiple input multiple output (MIMO) channel can be formed. In a such system, recent advances in MIMO technologies can be applied. In this paper, two precoders (max-d_min and P-OSM) for closed-loop MIMO systems are considered. Energy-efficient cooperative schemes are proposed for these precoders based on a quantification of the feedback information. The results show that these MIMO precoders-based cooperative schemes can provide a significant energy efficiency compared to a space-time block codes-based cooperative schemes, even after using additional steps required in transmission.