Network-Coding-Based Cooperative Transmission in Wireless Sensor Networks: Diversity-Multiplexing Tradeoff and Coverage Area Extension

In Wireless Sensor Networks large number of nodes and limited energy available per node calls for designing efficient transmission protocols. Cooperative transmission is one of the protocols which help wireless nodes to achieve spatial diversity, which translates into reduction in transmission power or increase in coverage area. Cooperative protocol can be realized with or without (called conventional afterward) network coding; and the network-coding-based (respectively the conventional) protocol can be operated in either static or adaptive manner. For an efficient operation of cooperative protocols, good quality inter-source channels are required, which in turn depend on relative location of nodes within a network.