Energy-efficient data collection in WSN with network coding

We consider the application of a network coding scheme in WSN (wireless sensor networks) for robustness. The use of network coding in WSN is evaluated in terms of reliability improvement, energy efficiency and resilience to network protocol failures. We have concentrated on the evaluation of coding schemes that take advantage of the spatial diversity inherent in different layers of the communication protocol. In particular, we evaluate the effect of overhearing (opportunistic listening) on the network coding performance and investigate different schemes for energy efficiency improvement. One of the main challenges is to determine the amount of overhearing, which enables to exploit the spatial diversity without consuming too much energy.