Energy Efficiency in Multipath Rayleigh Faded Wireless Sensor Networks Using Collaborative Communication

Deployed in harsh or hostile environments, it is usually impossible to replace/recharge the power source of a sensor node in a wireless sensor network. Therefore, the only solution is an energy efficient communication system. This paper presents an energy efficient system based on multipath collaborative communication having noise and fading. The collaborative communication exploits spatial diversity to achieve high gain in received power, low bit error rate <italic>(BER)</italic>, and high energy savings even if the received signals are out-of-phase. The experimental results confirm that the benefits are further enhanced by the use of the multipath environment in combination with collaborative communication. For the trade-off analysis between energy consumption and transmission distances, the multipath collaborative communication is compared with the single-input-single-output (<italic>SISO</italic>) system. Collaborative communication performs better over the long distance; however, the <italic>SISO</italic> is suitable for short distances. The proposed collaborative communication system can achieve 99&#x0025; energy savings in comparison to the <italic>SISO</italic> system.