Coverage problems in sensor networks

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks have many applications in national security, environmental monitoring, surveillance, military, and health care. Coverage problems have become an important research topic in wireless sensor networks in recent years. They are addressing the following fundamental question: How well do the sensors observe the physical space? Many coverage problems have been addressed by the research literature due to a variety of sensors and applications. They vary on the subject to be covered (area, discrete points), sensor deployment mechanism (random, deterministic), sensor mobility (stationary, mobile), event structure (simple, composite), and network properties (connectivity, energyeffi- ciency). This chapter surveys various coverage formulations, their assumptions, and an overview of the solutions proposed.