Macrodiversity in Wireless Sensor Networks Based on the Generalized Approach to Signal Processing

The effect of correlated lognormal shadowing on the average probability of error performance of narrow-band wireless sensor network systems with microand macrodiversity reception in a Rician fading channel is investigated by considering a constant correlation model for the shadowed signals at the fusion center or sensor sink of wireless sensor network with radio channel. The performance degradation due to correlated shadowing is illustrated by considering both coherent and differentially coherent binary phase-shift keying schemes. Numerical results presented show that when the sensors in a wireless sensor network system are very closely spaced, the effect of correlated shadowing on system performance cannot be ignored. The obtained results allow us to define the lower and upper bounds on wireless sensor network system performance. Key-Words: Wireless sensor network, correlated lognormal shadowing, macrodiversity, generalized detector, Rician fading channel.