On the topology design of large wireless sensor networks for distributed consensus with low power consumption

Abstract

Sensor-based structural health monitoring systems are commonly used to provide real-time information and detect damage in complex structures. In particular, wireless structural health monitoring systems are of low cost but, since wireless sensors are powered with batteries, a low power consumption is critical. A common approach for wireless structural health monitoring is to use a distributed computation strategy, which is usually based on consensus algorithms. Power consumption in such wireless consensus networks depends on the number of connections of the network. If sensors are randomly connected, there is no control on the power consumption. In this article, we present a novel strategy to connect a large number of wireless sensors for distributed consensus with low power consumption by combining small networks with basic topologies using the Kronecker product.