Channel Model Identification in Wireless Sensor Networks Using a Fully Distributed Quantized Consensus Algorithm

In this paper, we consider the problem of designing a distributed strategy to estimate the channel parameters for a generic Wireless Sensor-Actor Network (WSAN). To this aim, we present a distributed least-square algorithm that complies with the constraint of transmitting only integer data through the wireless communication, which often characterizes WSAN embedded architectures. In this respect, we propose a quantized consensus strategy that mitigates the effects of the rounding operations applied to the wireless exchanged floating data. Moreover, the approach is based on a symmetric random gossip strategy, making it suitable for the actual deployment in multiagent networks. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm and of its implementation as an open-source application is assessed and the employment of the procedure is illustrated through the application to radio-frequency localization experiments in a real world testbed.