Distributed in-network processing has garnered much attention due to its capability to estimate the unknown parameter of interest from noisy measurements based on a set of cooperating sensor nodes. In previous studies, distributed in-network processing mainly focused on short-distance communication systems, wherein sensor nodes collect certain parameters of interest within their maximum communication distance. In addition, the estimation of certain parameter vectors of interest from noisy measurements, relying heavily on training signals, is achieved with a non-blind distributed estimation algorithm. However, in some applications, acquiring knowledge of training signals beforehand is difficult. Therefore, it is necessary to perform distributed estimation algorithms for receivers without training signals, a concept known as blind distributed estimation. In this paper, the generalized Sato algorithm is used to design the blind equalizer for the signal estimation. In addition, we consider extending the short-distance communication system to a long-distance communication system for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) cooperating with sensor nodes in the wireless sensor network (WSN). In this scenario, the data signal is transmitted from a UAV to the WSN and is received by sensor nodes. However, the performance of the blind equalizer is susceptible to the transmission channel in long-distance communication systems. Here, we present a network topology reconfiguration approach to address the issue of distributed blind equalization. The objective of the proposed method is to discard the influence of ill-channels on the other sensor nodes by detecting ill-channels and redesigning the sensor node weights. Through computer simulation experiments, we evaluated the performance of the blind equalizer using the average mean square error (MSE) and average symbol error rate (SER). In the results of the computer simulation experiments, the blind equalizer using the proposed method outperformed the conventional methods in terms of prediction accuracy and convergence speed.
