Detection performance optimization based power allocation between sensing and communication in wireless sensor networks

The design of wireless sensor networks for signal detection applications has to consider the limited battery power of the sensor nodes. Considering the scenario of using distributed radar-like sensors to detect the presence of an object through active sensing, we formulate the problem of power allocation between sensing and communication for signal detection under the Neyman-Pearson criterion. An allocation scheme of node's power budget between sensing and communication is presented. The objective is to maximize the global probability of detection under a fixed node's power constraint and a given global probability of false alarm. Simulation results show that the proposed method leads to a big gain in performance. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.