Exploiting cooperative diversity for wireless sensor networks using medium access control

Wireless sensor networks are important for monitoring and instrumenting the physical world. In this paper, we propose a simple target detection method and analyze its performance for both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and fading channels. Specifically, we illustrate cooperative diversity when the channels have fading. Based on this analysis, we show that by using medium access control (MAC) protocols, cooperative diversity is enabled. Power consumption, bandwidth efficiency, and performance tradeoffs are considered for different MAC protocols. Simulation results confirm the theoretical claims.