Amplify-and-Forward cooperative relaying for a linear Wireless Sensor Network

This paper explores the benefits of cooperative diversity for a linear arrangement of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). Such arrangement is typical for instance in the case of pipeline monitoring. The focus in this work is restricted to the Amplify-and-Forward (AF) protocol at the relay sensor node where a proper lightweight combining strategy is considered at the receiver. A linear 3-node arrangement of WSN network is considered in the simulation. Substantial gain was observable upon deploying our cooperative scheme. It is evident that the distance between sensor nodes plays a role in dictating the overall system performance. Though they both fall under the same paradigm, there can be a remarkable difference between a fully-cooperative and a partially-cooperative relay node. This motivated us to introduce the reliability of cooperation for the relay sensor node, and study its impact on the system performance. Simulation results make it clear that the cooperation reliability of the relay node can excruciately impact the system performance. Proper measure needs to be taken to account for this vulnerability in the cooperative scheme.