Efficient data collecting and target parameter estimation in wireless sensor networks

Nowadays, one of the attractive topics in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) is Estimation. In WSN, sensor nodes collect locally processed data and then send them to a Fusion Center (FC). The FC collects data to produce a final estimation of the observed target parameter. In this paper, a distributed estimation method in a WSN will be proposed. The network consists of a FC and a number of network member nodes. The proposed method addresses two main challenges: (1) estimating target parameter according to a required application's precision and (2) collecting and forwarding data to the FC. The main goal of the proposed method is to prolong the network lifetime and to estimate the target parameter efficiently. The FC estimates unknown target parameter using the collected data. This work considers the various types of target parameters based on the environment characteristics; besides, using the credible confidence interval, the required sample size for the estimating target parameter with desirable precision is calculated. According to the requirements of estimation process, this paper will propose efficient scheduling/routing algorithms to collect data. Therefore, by the joint scheduling and routing algorithms, the proposed estimation method experiences high efficiency.