A new approach to energy efficient classification with multiple sensors based on ordered transmissions

Classification employing sensors connected by wireless networks is of great interest. As the sensor nodes are usually powered by batteries, saving transmissions is important. We demonstrate transmissions can be saved, without degradation in error probability, using an ordering approach. The average number of transmissions saved (ANTS) is lower bounded by a quantity proportional to the number of sensors employed provided a well-behaved distance measure between the sensor distributions is sufficiently large. For such cases, the ANTS over the optimum unconstrained energy approach is shown to be larger than half the number of sensors employed.