Distributed Two-Step Quantized Fusion Rules Via Consensus Algorithm for Distributed Detection in Wireless Sensor Networks

We consider the problem of distributed soft decision fusion in a bandwidth-constrained spatially uncorrelated wireless sensor network (WSN). The WSN is tasked with the detection of an intruder transmitting an unknown signal over a fading channel. Existing distributed consensus-based fusion rules algorithms only ensure equal combining of local data and in the case of band width constrained WSNs, we show that their performance is poor and does not converge across the sensor nodes (SNs). Motivated by this fact, we propose a two-step distributed quantized fusion rule algorithm where in the first step the SNs collaborate with their neighbors through error-free, orthogonal channels (the SNs exchange quantized information matched to the channel capacity of each link). In the second step, local 1-bit decisions generated in the first step are shared among neighbors to yield a consensus. A binary hypothesis testing is performed at any arbitrary SN to optimally declare the global decision. Simulations show that our proposed quantized two-step distributed detection algorithm approaches the performance of the unquantized centralized (with a fusion center) detector and its power consumption is shown to be 50% less than the existing (unquantized) conventional algorithm.