Energy Efficient Transmission in MIMO Wireless Sensor Networks with Antenna Selection

In this paper, we compare the energy efficiency of different multiple antenna (MIMO) techniques in wireless sensor networks. The considered energy consumption model takes into account the radio frequency (RF) circuitry, the efficiency of the power amplifier, and the transmission rate. Since the energy consumption of the additional RF chains required by each antenna becomes relevant at short transmission ranges, we show that antenna selection is a strong candidate for energy efficient communication as it uses a single RF chain. Based on this observation, we focus on transmit antenna selection (TAS) and switch and stay combining (SSC) at the receiver. In addition, we also show that cooperative single antenna (SISO) schemes may be more energy efficient than non-cooperative multiple antenna methods for very short ranges or low spectral efficiencies.