An Energy Efficient MAC-PHY Approach to Support Distributed Source Coding in Wireless Sensor Network

Distributed Source Coding (DSC) based signal processing applications are ideal candidates for multirate transmissions in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). In this paper, we propose a novel MAC-PHY approach in WSN to achieve energy efficiency using multirate desirable for the DSC based signal processing applications. Our approach is different from the common multirate research in link adaptation, the focus of which is to increase throughput based on rate adaptation derived from variable channel conditions. In the proposed approach, the redundant and inefficient communications are eliminated, yielding significant improvement of energy efficiency in WSN. Here, the minimum desirable transmission power can be determined and employed based on the desirable Bit Error Rate (BER), the channel attenuation, the corresponding modulation scheme, and the multirate requirements. Simulation results show this approach achieves considerable energy efficiency in WSN while maintaining the transmission quality.