Lifetime Maximization of UWB-Based Sensor Networks for Event Detection Applications

Ultra wideband (UWB) technology is well suited for communication in wireless sensor networks, in which low power consumption for data transmission and the availability of precise ranging information are highly desirable. In this paper, we consider the application of UWB in an event-detection sensor network, and we are interested in maximizing the network operational lifetime while satisfying requirements on the detection and false alarm probabilities. Towards the goal of lifetime maximization we (i) jointly find the optimal routes from multiple events to the sink, to avoid the bottleneck-node phenomenon which often limits lifetime, and (ii) allow adjustment of the data rate that each sensor generates to contribute to event detection, in order to balance the energy consumption among the nodes in the network. Using the UWB signal characteristics, we present a convex optimization model to solve the lifetime maximization problem. The numerical results show that the proposed framework leads to significant improvements in network operational lifetime compared to benchmark approaches.