ABSTRACT
Wireless sensor network technology has a vast potential for applications, which include energy network monitoring and management, efficient automation of industrial production, patient monitoring for better health care and assisted living, home monitoring and security, and environmental monitoring. Diversity has traditionally consisted of a key technique, which is used by system designers to achieve quality of service and efficiency goals in a wide range of communication systems. Cooperation techniques therefore offer a useful tool, which achieves attractive and optimized trade-offs for the set of design parameters in wireless sensor networks. In propagation environments in general, the instant fading value of each channel is different, and as a result, the destination node receives multiple versions of the same information signal. The nodes of a cooperative wireless sensor network operate as relays that forward an information signal to the final destination. The nonregenerative sensor relays use the amplify-and-forward technique.
