ABSTRACT
Networked sensing offers unique advantages over traditional centralized approaches. Dense networks of distributed networked sensors can improve perceived signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) by decreasing average distances from sensor to target. Increased energy efficiency in communications is enabled by the multi-hop topology of the network [1]. Moreover, additional relevant information from other sensors can be aggregated during this multi-hop transmission through in-network processing [2]. But perhaps the greatest advantages of networked sensing are in improved robustness and scalability. A decentralized sensing system is inherently more robust against individual sensor node or link failures, because of redundancy in the network. Decentralized algorithms are also far more scalable in practical deployment, and may be the only way to achieve the large scales needed for some applications.
