Bio-inspired sensor network design: Distributed decision through self-synchronization

The goal of this article is to show how a simple self-synchronization mechanism, borrowed from biological systems, can form the basic tool for achieving globally optimal distributed decisions in a wireless sensor network with no need for a fusion center. After describing the basic interaction mechanism among the network nodes, the conditions are illustrated guaranteeing the convergence of each node to a global (or local) consensus coinciding with the globally (locally) optimal decision statistics. The interaction mechanism takes into account the physical channel parameters, such as fading coefficients and propagation delays. Then the results are illustrated through examples of distributed estimation and multiple hypothesis testing. The energy consumption issues are addressed and discuss some possible implementations.