Data filtering and distortion-prevention for power saving in Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used in several applications, such as environmental information gathering for smart home control, smart grid, and health-care systems. However, since wireless sensor nodes are usually battery powered, the battery lifetime of wireless sensor nodes becomes a key concern. Therefore, a data filtering and distortion-prevention algorithm for saving power of sensor nodes and preserving the data accuracy is proposed in this paper. Data filtering algorithm, which filters out some redundant data, is used to reduce the amount of data transmissions. Distortion-prevention algorithm, which is implemented by transmitting pilot terms periodically, is designed to prevent data from serious distortion under the environment with packet error or loss. Simulations on the environmental temperature gathering, transmission, and reconstruction were conducted to demonstrate the performance of the proposed data filtering and distortion-prevention algorithm. Numerical results show that using the proposed algorithm, the data distortion can be well-controlled and the data reduction ratio can be up to about 90% under the environment of a low degree of temperature variation.