Adoption features and approach for UWB wireless sensor network based on pilot signal assisted MAC

Abstract

In the field of wireless sensor network (WSN), Pilot Assisted Transmission (PAT) is a new concept. In our previous research, a mac layer algorithm called, "PA-MAC" was designed, which exclusively uses PAT technique for the medium access control. The performance of PA-MAC was evaluated under multihop and single hop WSNs. It was excellent under a single hop structure (i.e. network with a few nodes). But when it was evaluated for the dense network topology, the performance seriously declined. It was noted that the two main reasons of performance degradation are interference and transmission range. Technically there are two ways to tackle a dense network traffic problem. One is to use the multi-hop structure and the other one is clustering. In this research paper, clustering based adoption strategy is examined, and beside dynamic clustering approach multiple optimization features (i.e., clustering formation based on transmission range, dynamic cluster head selection and use of the Volterra code for the mitigation of interference) are added and tested. Collectively these adoption features have not only improved the media access performance but also optimized the network lifetime.