Optimal rate allocation for multi-sensor distributed estimation

This paper studies the optimal rate allocation (ORA) problem for multisensor distributed estimation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) where a total bit rate constraint is imposed. We adopt the mean square error (MSE) as the the performance criterion of the designed distributed estimator, and search for the optimal rate allocation scheme through minimizing the upper bound of the designed estimator MSE. We consider the two sensor case in WSN, and obtain a optimal rate allocation scheme, where the optimal bit rate of each sensor is basically determined by the local signal to noise ratio (SNR). Simulation results show that the optimal rate allocation scheme improves evidently on the simple uniform rate allocation scheme.