An information theoretic approach for determining the minimum number of sensors in a wireless sensor network

We bridge a gap between Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) research and information theory research by utilizing information theoretic measures as top-level design metrics for WSNs. In particular, we use source coding theorems from information theory to determine a loose bound on the minimum number of sensors that must successfully report their measurements in order for the WSN to accurately estimate the features of some phenomenon. Although application of the information theoretic techniques is straightforward and this WSN problem has been well studied, to our knowledge this is the first time that these tools have been applied to the problem in a general setting.