Power aware coding for spatio-temporally correlated wireless sensor data

A novel coding scheme is proposed for applications over wireless microsensor networks to meet both wireless link bandwidth and node energy constraints. First, an analysis is performed on the energy efficiency of coding schemes in wireless microsensor networks. Based on this analysis, we devise a power aware coding scheme, called EESPIHT which exploits the spatio-temporal correlation of multiple sensor readings. It is also made resilient to channel errors: it selects an error correcting code based on source coding information and transmission power so that energy dissipation is minimized. Experimental results on a LINUX implementation and simulation results based on OPNET using field data sets show that the proposed scheme can reduce energy on communication by more than 60% and maintain a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gain of 24 dB or better compared to the non-coded case.