Side information aware coding strategies for sensor networks

• Published in: IEEE journal on selected areas in communications Vol. 22; no. 6; pp. 966 - 976
• Main Authors: Draper, S.C., Wornell, G.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.08.2004; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Channels; Coding; Decoding; Educational institutions; Flexibility; Information theory; Networks; Relays; Robustness; Routing; Scalability; Sensor phenomena and characterization; Sensors; Serials; Source coding; Strategy; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 0733-8716; 1558-0008
• DOI: 10.1109/JSAC.2004.830875

We develop coding strategies for estimation under communication constraints in tree-structured sensor networks. The strategies have a modular and decentralized architecture. This promotes the flexibility, robustness, and scalability that wireless sensor networks need to operate in uncertain, changing, and resource-constrained environments. The strategies are based on a generalization of Wyner-Ziv source coding with decoder side information. We develop solutions for general trees, and illustrate our results in serial (pipeline) and parallel (hub-and-spoke) networks. Additionally, the strategies can be applied to other network information theory problems. They have a successive coding structure that gives an inherently less complex way to attain a number of prior results, as well as some novel results, for the Chief Executive Officer problem, multiterminal source coding, and certain classes of relay channels.