On optimal communication cost for gathering correlated data through wireless sensor networks

In many energy-constrained wireless sensor networks, nodes cooperatively forward correlated sensed data to data sinks. In order to reduce the communication cost (e.g. overall en-ergy) used for data collection, previous works have focused on specific coding schemes, such as Slepian-Wolf Code or Explicit Entropy Code. However, the minimum communi-cation cost under arbitrary coding/routing schemes has not yet been characterized. In this paper, we consider the prob-lem of minimizing the total communication cost of a wireless sensor network with a single sink. We prove that the min-imum communication cost can be achieved using Slepian-Wolf Code and Commodity Flow Routing when the link communication cost is a convex function of link data rate. Furthermore, we find it useful to introduce a new metri