A peer-to-peer collaboration framework for multi-sensor data fusion

A peer-to-peer collaboration framework for multi-sensor data fusion in resource-rich radar networks is presented. In this high data volume real-time application, data from multiple radars are combined to improve the accuracy of radar scans (e.g., correct for attenuation) and to provide a composite view of the area covered by the radars. Data fusion process is subject to two constraints: (1) the accuracy requirement of the final fused results, which may be different at different end nodes, and (2) the real-time requirements of the application. The accuracy requirement is achieved by dynamically selecting the appropriate set of data to exchange among the multiple radar nodes. A mechanism for selecting a dataset based on current application-specific needs is presented. We also present a dynamic peer-selection algorithm, Best Peer Selection (BPS), that chooses a set of peers based on their computation and communication capabilities to minimize the data processing time per integration algorithm. Simulation-based results show that BPS can deliver a significant performance improvement, even when the peers have high variability in available network and computation resources. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.