Abstract
Sensor networks are important for monitoring several physical phenomena. In this paper, we consider the monitoring of diffusion fields and design simple, yet robust, sensing, data processing and communication strategies for estimating the sources of diffusion fields under communication constraints. Specifically, based on our previous work in the area, we firstly show how sources of the field can be recovered analytically through the use of well-chosen sensing functions. Then, by properly extending this scheme to our sensor network setting, we design and propose an effective diffusion field sensing strategy. Next, we introduce a physics-driven quantized gossip scheme, as a joint information processing and communication strategy for handling the network communication constraints: i.e. when a sensor can only communicate with a small subset of nodes over links with a finite capacity. Combining the proposed strategies allows us to develop a fully distributed algorithm for recovering sources of diffusion fields using sensor networks. Numerical simulation results are presented in order to evaluate the effectiveness and robustness of our algorithm.
Highlights
Due to several significant advances over the last few decades in the fields of networking, communications and in the fabrication of microprocessors, the use of sensor networks (SNs) for sensing and monitoring physical phenomena has become a fast-growing area of research
In contrast to [26, 27] which demands a fusion center, we show that this computation can be distributed using a modification of the distributed gossip algorithms for average consensus, such that each sensor in the network only needs to exchange some properly modified versions of its sensor measurements to its neighboring nodes
Both quantized gossip schemes [34, 35] considered in Sections 3.1.2 and 3.1.3, respectively, are known to achieve quantized consensus, such that all sensors in the network converge to values which are within one bin of the true average
Summary
Due to several significant advances over the last few decades in the fields of (wireless) networking, communications and in the fabrication of microprocessors, the use of sensor networks (SNs) for sensing and monitoring physical phenomena has become a fast-growing area of research. In contrast to [26, 27] which demands a fusion center, we show that this computation can be distributed using a modification of the distributed gossip algorithms for average consensus, such that each sensor in the network only needs to exchange some properly modified versions of its sensor measurements to its neighboring nodes This modification is based on the physics of the problem and allows each sensor to converge, through these localized interactions with its neighbors, to the true values of a specific family of integrals.
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