Routing for Emitter/Reflector Signal Detection in Wireless Sensor Network Systems

In this paper, we consider energy-efficient routing for detection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Energy-efficient routing for WSNs has been intensely studied recently, but routing for signal detection in WSNs has not attracted much attention. Moreover, we are not aware of any previous work on routing for detection in WSNs that specifically considers the Neyman-Pearson criterion which is the most accepted metric for radar, sonar and related signal detection problems. By deploying a simple but illustrative model for target detection in WSNs, we formulate a problem of energy-efficient routing for signal detection under the Neyman-Pearson criterion. We propose a routing metric which aims for a route with the maximum mean detection-probability-to-energy ratio, and describe methods for solving the resulting optimization problem. This proposed metric, striving for a balance between the consumed energy and detection performance, is effective for finding the optimal routing that values such an energy-detection tradeoff.