A simple data relay process and turbo code application to wireless sensor networks

In this study, we focus on relay process of intermediate node of wireless sensor networks. In conventional wireless sensor networks, the intermediate node performs the regenerative repeating process such that error correction, detection and re-encoding are processed. This is reliable, but it requires a lot of processing effort and may take much energy. To reduce a burden of relay process, we propose to omit error decoding and/or re-encoding process at the intermediate nodes. Further, we propose a method that realizes soft-decision decoding for hard-detected signals. With this method, we can employ turbo code to wireless sensor networks. As results, we show that though omitting the decoding and re-encoding process at the intermediate node may not affect much to the performance.