Energy-efficient dynamic cooperative virtual MIMO based routing protocol in wireless sensor networks

Cooperative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) based communication architecture is used for energy efficient communication in wireless sensor networks. Without increasing transmission energy consumption of nodes, MIMO technology can make use of the cumulative energy of the sender node to increase the sending signal to noise ratio, thus reducing the error rate and improve the reliability of data communication. In the same transmit power and bit error rate situations, using MIMO technology can provide higher data rates, reduce the node sending time, thereby reduce the energy consumption. In this paper, dynamic cooperative virtual MIMO (DCVM) method based on residual energy information is proposed. In the specific application environment, simulation results show that the DCVM based routing protocol is more energy-efficient than single input single output (SISO) in case of long-distance communication and it prolongs sensor network lifetime as well.