Asymptotic distortion exponents for the estimation of time-varying channels in multihop sensor networks

The problem of time-varying channel estimation in multihop sensor networks is examined. Two relay processing methods are explored: amplify-and-forward and encode-and-forward. Bounds on the end-to-end distortion for all internode channel estimates are computed for these two relay processing schemes. Performance is analyzed via the asymptotic limit of the decay rate of the end-to-end distortion with respect to SNR at high SNR. It is also established that asymptotically in SNR, amplify-and-forward can outperform encode-and-forward and in fact can achieve the maximum possible distortion exponent (distortion decay rate) order of unity. Linear and manyto-one topologies are then examined and it is shown that orthogonal access in the many-to-one network is optimal..