Target coverage in random wireless sensor networks using cover sets

Abstract

There are numerous coverage algorithms which efficiently monitor targets in sensor networks by dividing the sensor network into cover sets where each cover monitors all the targets. Creating maximum number of cover sets is a NP Complete problem and therefore problems providing subprime solutions have been proposed. In this paper we propose a novel and energy efficient target coverage algorithm that produces disjoint as well as non-disjoint cover sets. Our proposed solution along with generating cover sets for monitoring targets also gives the energy optimized minimum path from sink to the sensor node and from cover set to the sink. Our algorithm keeps a track of the number of targets a sensor is monitoring along with the energy remaining to find a path which is energy optimized to increase the lifetime of the sensor network. Through simulations, we have shown that our proposed algorithm outperforms similar algorithms found in literature. The increased network lifetime provided by energy optimized path and energy efficient cover sets makes our algorithm desirable for a wider range of applications.

Keywords

• Connected target coverage
• Energy optimization
• Wireless sensor networks
• Cover sets
• Lifetime maximization