The invention is notably directed to a sensor system (100) for performing distributed sensing and classification of sensor data. The sensor system (100) comprises a set of distributed sensor nodes (111) for sensing the sensor data. The sensor system (100) is configured to encode the sensor data of each sensor node of a set of distributed sensor nodes (111) for sensing the sensor data as high-dimensional vectors (V1,V2,......VS) and to transmit the high-dimensional vectors (V1,V2,......VS) over a respective link between the respective sensor node and a receiver system (130). The sensor system (100) is further configured to superpose the high-dimensional vectors (V1,V2,......VS) of the sensor data from the set of sensor nodes (111) by physical superposition, thereby generating a superposed high-dimensional vector and to classify the superposed high-dimensional vectors (V1,V2,......VS) at the receiver system (130).