Binary Decision Consensus in Ad Hoc Sensor Network

Abstract

Decentralized binary detection problem in ad hoc sensor networks with low inter-sensor communication rate is considered in this paper. We propose a consensus based detection scheme where sensors exchange their local decisions with their neighbors, update their own decisions based on the exchanges and finally reach a consensus about the state of nature. For analysis, we set up a Markov Chain model for this scheme. In the evaluation of the system performance, we focus on the asymptotic behavior of the detection error probability with respect to the number of sensors in the system. We show that with our scheme, the detection performance in ad hoc networks is asymptotically equivalent to that of a parallel sensor network where all the local decisions is processed by a central node (fusion center) in the sense that the error exponents are the same. Simulation and numerical results are given at the end of this paper to verify the theoretical results.