Cross-layered design of security scheme for cooperative MIMO sensor networks

Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems employ multiple antennas to provide extremely high spectral efficiencies through space multiplexing and link reliability through space diversity for wireless communication. Since it is unrealistic to equip multiple antennas to small and inexpensive nodes, virtual/cooperative MIMO technology that enables distributed single-antenna systems cooperating on data transmission and reception as a multiple antenna array is a promising technique and has attracted many researchers. A virtual MIMO network can be formed by clustering a network of single-antenna nodes, where each cluster is called a virtual MIMO node and the single-antenna nodes in a cluster are called as primary nodes which cooperate on data transmission and reception [1–4].