Distributed detection in bandwidth constrained wireless sensor networks

We address the problem of distributed detection of an event in a bandwidth and power constrained sensor network with a fusion center. Detection and correct classification of an event can be termed as multiple hypothesis testing, where each class or state of the event is hypothesized. We propose a scheme, where each sensor is restricted to send a 1-bit message to fusion center and the fusion center collates the bits sent by all the sensors and makes a decision about the hypothesis. We analyze the performance of our scheme and illustrate it with an example.