Energy efficient virtual MIMO communication for wireless sensor networks

Virtual multiple input multiple output (MIMO) techniques are used for energy efficient communication in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we propose energy efficient routing based on virtual MIMO. We investigate virtual MIMO for both fixed and variable rates. We use a cluster based virtual MIMO cognitive model with the aim of changing operational parameters (constellation size) to provide energy efficient communication. We determine the routing path based on the virtual MIMO communication cost to delay the first node death. For larger distances, the simulation results show that virtual MIMO (2×2) based routing is more energy efficient than SISO (single input single output) and other MIMO variations.