Energy-efficient cooperative communication based on power control and selective relay in wireless sensor networks

Cooperative communication with single relay selection is a simple yet effective communication scheme for energy-constrained networks. In this paper, we investigate the minimum energy relay selection mechanism jointly with transmission power control. Based on the proposed MAC layer signaling, a set of potential relays determine their needed transmission power to participate in the cooperative communication, while only the "best" one is chosen to minimize the overall energy consumption. The relay selection is done in a distributed manner with minimum overhead. Numerical and simulation results confirm significant energy savings and outage improvement of the proposed scheme relative to direct transmission alternatives.