Smart: Adequate selection of relay nodes to support cooperative communication in WSNs

Cooperative communication approaches are being increasingly used to improve the reliability of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) communication, allowing better spatial and temporal diversity. For the success of these techniques, a proper selection of the relay nodes is a crucial task. This paper proposes a new technique, named Smart, for the selection of cooperating WSN nodes according to criteria considered relevant for an adequate network operation. The selection is performed using optimization techniques, that target the selection of the smallest number of relay nodes and, at same time, ensure that all nodes are linked to at least one corresponding relay node, enabling messages reach their destinations in a noisy environments. Simulation results show that the Smart technique clearly outperforms other analysed SOTA (state-of-the-art) cooperative communication techniques.