Distributed Scheduling in Wireless Sensor Networks Under Heterogeneity and Imperfect Channel State Information

In this paper, we propose and analyze an energy-efficient opportunistic random access scheme for wireless sensor networks. The scheme allows for the simultaneous transmission of multiple observations to the fusion center (where a Successive Interference Cancellation scheme is assumed to be available), this resulting in a reduced system latency for a predefined parameter estimation quality. We provide both analytical and numerical expressions of the overall energy consumption and system latency in two practical situations: (1) when only imperfect (noisy) estimates of the sensor-FC propagation channel are available and, (2) in the presence of non-identically distributed propagation channels due, for instance, to different path-loss conditions.