Channel-Aware Holographic Decision Fusion

TL;DR

This paper introduces a holographic decision fusion system for wireless sensor networks that uses a reconfigurable metasurface to improve energy efficiency and detection performance over shared channels.

Contribution

It proposes a novel holographic decision fusion approach with optimized and suboptimal design strategies, reducing complexity and system knowledge requirements.

Findings

Holographic DF enhances detection accuracy and energy efficiency.

Suboptimal designs perform close to optimal with lower complexity.

Simulation confirms the system's viability and energy savings.

Abstract

This work investigates Distributed Detection (DD) in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) utilizing channel-aware binary-decision fusion over a shared flat-fading channel. A reconfigurable metasurface, positioned in the near-field of a limited number of receive antennas, is integrated to enable a holographic Decision Fusion (DF) system. This approach minimizes the need for multiple RF chains while leveraging the benefits of a large array. The optimal fusion rule for a fixed metasurface configuration is derived, alongside two suboptimal joint fusion rule and metasurface design strategies. These suboptimal approaches strike a balance between reduced complexity and lower system knowledge requirements, making them practical alternatives. The design objective focuses on effectively conveying the information regarding the phenomenon of interest to the FC while promoting energy-efficient data analytics aligned with the Internet of Things (IoT) paradigm. Simulation results underscore the viability of holographic DF, demonstrating its advantages even with suboptimal designs and highlighting the significant energy-efficiency gains achieved by the proposed system.