Cross layer design of heterogeneous virtual MIMO radio networks with multi-optimization

In virtual MIMO technology, distributed single-antenna radio systems cooperate on information transmission and reception as a multiple- antenna MIMO radio system. In this paper, a new virtual MIMO communication scheme and routing protocol are cross layered designed for a wireless sensor network (WSN) to jointly achieve reliability, energy efficiency and delay reduction. The proposed communication scheme minimizes the intra communication in virtual MIMO nodes. It saves energy and reduces latency simultaneously at transmission links even when the diameters of virtual nodes are large. Given a required reliability, the proposed routing protocol simultaneously optimizes energy and latency along the route. Virtual MIMO nodes/links are allowed to be heterogeneous in order to apply the visual MIMO technology to a general WSN. A virtual MIMO radio network can be formed for any underlying WSN. The network is reconfigurable with low cost. The performance evaluation shows that the proposed design can fully realize the potential of the virtual MIMO technology and largely improve network throughput, network lifetime, and reliability in a WSN.