Many sensor applications are interested in computing a function over measurements (e.g., sum, average, max) as opposed to collecting all sensor data. Today, such data aggregation is done in a cluster-head. Sensor nodes transmit their values sequentially to a cluster-head node, which calculates the aggregation function and forwards it to the base station. In contrast, this paper explores the possibility of computing a desired function over the air. We devise a solution that enables sensors to transmit coherently over the wireless medium so that the cluster-head directly receives the value of the desired function. We present analysis and preliminary results that demonstrate that such a design yield a large improvement in network throughput.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1612.02307,
title = {Over-the-air Function Computation in Sensor Networks},
author = {Omid Abari and Hariharan Rahul and Dina Katabi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1612.02307},
year = {2016}
}