Energy optimization of wireless sensor networks through cooperative MIMO with data aggregation

In wireless sensor networks where nodes are powered by batteries, it is critical to prolong the network lifetime by minimizing the energy consumption of each node. In this paper, the cooperative multi-input-multi-output (MIMO) and data aggregation techniques are jointly adopted to improve energy efficiency in a cluster based wireless sensor network. Using the energy model derived, the average energy consumption per node required to send a given number of bits is minimized through the optimization of the cluster size. As a result, energy efficiency can be enhanced significantly in cooperative MIMO systems with data aggregation, compared to either cooperative MIMO systems without data aggregation or data aggregation systems without cooperative MIMO.