TY - GEN
T1 - Distributed processing techniques for beamforming in wireless sensor networks
AU - Zarifi, Keyvan
AU - Affes, Sofiene
AU - Ghrayeb, Ali
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - A main task in distributed beamforming (DBF) techniques for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is to maximize the received signal power at the access point (AP) while inflicting small interfering effect on unintended receivers. When the DBF nodes are unaware of the directions of unintended receivers, interference at the latter receivers may be substantially reduced by forming a beampattern with a narrow mainlobe that is pointed towards the AP. However, such an approach requires the DBF nodes to be sporadically scattered over a large area and, hence, increases the probability of the loss of their inter-connection. Assuming that nodes are uniformly distributed in the network, we show how the DBF nodes can be intelligently selected to ameliorate the network disconnectivity problem. In turn, when the directions of unintended receivers are known, one may aim to apply the so-called null-steering beamforming approach to effectively nullify the received power at those directions. However, it can be shown that implementing a null-steering beamformer in WSNs requires each node to be aware of the locations of all other nodes in the network; a requirement that opposes the distributed nature of WSNs. For such a scenario, we approximate the null-steering beamformer with another beamformer that is amenable to a distributed implementation.
AB - A main task in distributed beamforming (DBF) techniques for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) is to maximize the received signal power at the access point (AP) while inflicting small interfering effect on unintended receivers. When the DBF nodes are unaware of the directions of unintended receivers, interference at the latter receivers may be substantially reduced by forming a beampattern with a narrow mainlobe that is pointed towards the AP. However, such an approach requires the DBF nodes to be sporadically scattered over a large area and, hence, increases the probability of the loss of their inter-connection. Assuming that nodes are uniformly distributed in the network, we show how the DBF nodes can be intelligently selected to ameliorate the network disconnectivity problem. In turn, when the directions of unintended receivers are known, one may aim to apply the so-called null-steering beamforming approach to effectively nullify the received power at those directions. However, it can be shown that implementing a null-steering beamformer in WSNs requires each node to be aware of the locations of all other nodes in the network; a requirement that opposes the distributed nature of WSNs. For such a scenario, we approximate the null-steering beamformer with another beamformer that is amenable to a distributed implementation.
KW - Beampattern
KW - Distributed beamforming
KW - Null-steering beamforming
KW - Wireless sensor networks
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=77951495145&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1109/ICSCS.2009.5412692
DO - 10.1109/ICSCS.2009.5412692
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:77951495145
SN - 9781424443987
T3 - 3rd International Conference on Signals, Circuits and Systems, SCS 2009
BT - 3rd International Conference on Signals, Circuits and Systems, SCS 2009
T2 - 3rd International Conference on Signals, Circuits and Systems, SCS 2009
Y2 - 6 November 2009 through 8 November 2009
ER -