Distributed energy-efficient scheduling for radar signal detection in sensor networks

In this paper, we consider the problem of Neyman-Pearson detection of fluctuating narrowband radar signals using wireless sensor networks (WSNs), and we are interested in finding some approach which can optimize the signal detection performance jointly with the energy expenditure. Towards this goal, we propose a distributed and energy-efficient scheduling scheme to coordinate the communications between each sensor node and the fusion center. This scheduling scheme allows each sensor to make its own decision about when to send data to the fusion center, according to its own information and without consulting any other sensors. This distributed scheduling approach greatly reduces the dependence on the fusion center, and also attains an appealing balance between the detection performance and the energy efficiency.