We study the potential of exploiting receive diversity in a distributed Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). In contrast to other approaches, we fully rely on diversity combining on signal level by introducing selective sample forwarding to a centralized receiver. That way, we use the WSN as a distributed antenna array and still take the rather limited data rates between the sensor nodes into consideration. In particular, we consider a distributed ground network in the wild to track bats in their natural habitat. The bats are equipped with a sensor node of only 2 g, which limits the energy budget available for communication. The main challenges to be addressed are the limited bandwidth between nodes and the need for accurate time synchronization to combine signal copies constructively at a central node. We study the performance based on a GNU Radio implementation both in simulations as well as in lab experiments. Our results clearly indicate a substantial performance gain while keeping the data rate in the distributed sensor network in a feasible range.
Original Version 
(at publishers web site)
Authors' Version 
(PDF on this web site)
BibTeX 
Muhammad Nabeel
Bastian Bloessl
Falko Dressler
@article{nabeel2018efficient,
author = {Nabeel, Muhammad and Bloessl, Bastian and Dressler, Falko},
title = {{Efficient Receive Diversity in Distributed Sensor Networks using Selective Sample Forwarding}},
doi = {10.1109/TGCN.2017.2780196},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Green Communications and Networking},
month = {June},
volume = {2},
issue = {2},
pages = {336-345},
publisher = {IEEE},
year = {2018},
}Links to final or draft versions of papers are presented here to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted or distributed for commercial purposes without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
The following applies to all papers listed above that have IEEE copyrights: Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.
The following applies to all papers listed above that are in submission to IEEE conference/workshop proceeedings or journals: This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication. Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no longer be accessible.
The following applies to all papers listed above that have ACM copyrights: ACM COPYRIGHT NOTICE. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers, or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Publications Dept., ACM, Inc., fax +1 (212) 869-0481, or permissions@acm.org.
The following applies to all SpringerLink papers listed above that have Springer Science+Business Media copyrights: The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com.