2 \documentclass[preprint,12pt]{elsarticle}
4 \usepackage[linesnumbered,ruled,vlined,commentsnumbered]{algorithm2e}
12 \SetAlCapNameFnt{\large}
13 \usepackage{algorithmic}
14 \algsetup{linenosize=\tiny}
16 \DeclarePairedDelimiter\ceil{\lceil}{\rceil}
17 \DeclarePairedDelimiter\floor{\lfloor}{\rfloor}
18 %% Use the option review to obtain double line spacing
19 %% \documentclass[authoryear,preprint,review,12pt]{elsarticle}
21 %% Use the options 1p,twocolumn; 3p; 3p,twocolumn; 5p; or 5p,twocolumn
22 %% for a journal layout:
23 %% \documentclass[final,1p,times]{elsarticle}
24 %% \documentclass[final,1p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}
25 %% \documentclass[final,3p,times]{elsarticle}
26 %% \documentclass[final,3p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}
27 %% \documentclass[final,5p,times]{elsarticle}
28 %% \documentclass[final,5p,times,twocolumn]{elsarticle}
30 %% For including figures, graphicx.sty has been loaded in
31 %% elsarticle.cls. If you prefer to use the old commands
32 %% please give \usepackage{epsfig}
34 %% The amssymb package provides various useful mathematical symbols
36 %% The amsthm package provides extended theorem environments
37 %% \usepackage{amsthm}
39 %% The lineno packages adds line numbers. Start line numbering with
40 %% \begin{linenumbers}, end it with \end{linenumbers}. Or switch it on
41 %% for the whole article with \linenumbers.
42 %% \usepackage{lineno}
44 \journal{Ad Hoc Networks}
50 %% Title, authors and addresses
52 %% use the tnoteref command within \title for footnotes;
53 %% use the tnotetext command for theassociated footnote;
54 %% use the fnref command within \author or \address for footnotes;
55 %% use the fntext command for theassociated footnote;
56 %% use the corref command within \author for corresponding author footnotes;
57 %% use the cortext command for theassociated footnote;
58 %% use the ead command for the email address,
59 %% and the form \ead[url] for the home page:
60 %% \title{Title\tnoteref{label1}}
61 %% \tnotetext[label1]{}
62 %% \author{Name\corref{cor1}\fnref{label2}}
63 %% \ead{email address}
64 %% \ead[url]{home page}
67 %% \address{Address\fnref{label3}}
70 \title{Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization Protocol in Wireless Sensor Networks}
72 %% use optional labels to link authors explicitly to addresses:
73 %% \author[label1,label2]{}
76 %\author{Ali Kadhum Idrees, Karine Deschinkel, \\
77 %Michel Salomon, and Rapha\"el Couturier}
79 %\thanks{are members in the AND team - DISC department - FEMTO-ST Institute, University of Franche-Comt\'e, Belfort, France.
80 % e-mail: ali.idness@edu.univ-fcomte.fr, $\lbrace$karine.deschinkel, michel.salomon, raphael.couturier$\rbrace$@univ-fcomte.fr.}% <-this % stops a space
81 %\thanks{}% <-this % stops a space
83 %\address{FEMTO-ST Institute, University of Franche-Comt\'e, Belfort, France. \\
84 %e-mail: ali.idness@edu.univ-fcomte.fr, \\
85 %$\lbrace$karine.deschinkel, michel.salomon, raphael.couturier$\rbrace$@univ-fcomte.fr.}
87 \author{Ali Kadhum Idrees$^{a,b}$, Karine Deschinkel$^{a}$, \\ Michel
88 Salomon$^{a}$, and Rapha\"el Couturier $^{a}$ \\ $^{a}${\em{FEMTO-ST
89 Institute, UMR 6174 CNRS, \\ University Bourgogne Franche-Comt\'e,
90 Belfort, France}} \\ $^{b}${\em{Department of Computer Science, University
91 of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq}} }
94 Coverage and lifetime are two paramount problems in Wireless Sensor Networks
95 (WSNs). In this paper, a method called Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage
96 Optimization protocol (MuDiLCO) is proposed to maintain the coverage and to
97 improve the lifetime in wireless sensor networks. The area of interest is first
98 divided into subregions and then the MuDiLCO protocol is distributed on the
99 sensor nodes in each subregion. The proposed MuDiLCO protocol works in periods
100 during which sets of sensor nodes are scheduled, with one set for each round of
101 a period, to remain active during the sensing phase and thus ensure coverage so
102 as to maximize the WSN lifetime. \textcolor{blue}{The decision process is
103 carried out by a leader node, which solves an optimization problem to produce
104 the best representative sets to be used during the rounds of the sensing
105 phase. The optimization problem formulated as an integer program is solved to
106 optimality through a Branch-and-Bound method for small instances. For larger
107 instances, the best feasible solution found by the solver after a given time
108 limit threshold is considered.}
109 Compared with some existing protocols, simulation results based on multiple
110 criteria (energy consumption, coverage ratio, and so on) show that the proposed
111 protocol can prolong efficiently the network lifetime and improve the coverage
116 Wireless Sensor Networks, Area Coverage, Network Lifetime,
117 Optimization, Scheduling, Distributed Computation.
122 \section{Introduction}
124 \indent The fast developments of low-cost sensor devices and wireless
125 communications have allowed the emergence of WSNs. A WSN includes a large number
126 of small, limited-power sensors that can sense, process, and transmit data over
127 a wireless communication. They communicate with each other by using multi-hop
128 wireless communications and cooperate together to monitor the area of interest,
129 so that each measured data can be reported to a monitoring center called sink
130 for further analysis~\cite{Sudip03}. There are several fields of application
131 covering a wide spectrum for a WSN, including health, home, environmental,
132 military, and industrial applications~\cite{Akyildiz02}.
134 On the one hand sensor nodes run on batteries with limited capacities, and it is
135 often costly or simply impossible to replace and/or recharge batteries,
136 especially in remote and hostile environments. Obviously, to achieve a long life
137 of the network it is important to conserve battery power. Therefore, lifetime
138 optimization is one of the most critical issues in wireless sensor networks. On
139 the other hand we must guarantee coverage over the area of interest. To fulfill
140 these two objectives, the main idea is to take advantage of overlapping sensing
141 regions to turn-off redundant sensor nodes and thus save energy. In this paper,
142 we concentrate on the area coverage problem, with the objective of maximizing
143 the network lifetime by using an optimized multiround scheduling.
145 The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. The next section
146 reviews the related works in the field. Section~\ref{pd} is devoted to the
147 description of MuDiLCO protocol. Section~\ref{exp} introduces the experimental
148 framework, it describes the simulation setup and the different metrics used to
149 assess the performances. Section~\ref{analysis} shows the simulation results
150 obtained using the discrete event simulator OMNeT++ \cite{varga}. They fully
151 demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed approach. Finally, we give
152 concluding remarks and some suggestions for future works in
153 Section~\ref{sec:conclusion}.
155 \section{Related works}
158 \indent This section is dedicated to the various approaches proposed in the
159 literature for the coverage lifetime maximization problem, where the objective
160 is to optimally schedule sensors' activities in order to extend network lifetime
161 in WSNs. Cardei and Wu \cite{cardei2006energy} provide a taxonomy for coverage
162 algorithms in WSNs according to several design choices:
164 \item Sensors scheduling algorithm implementation, i.e. centralized or
165 distributed/localized algorithms.
166 \item The objective of sensor coverage, i.e. to maximize the network lifetime or
167 to minimize the number of active sensors during a sensing round.
168 \item The homogeneous or heterogeneous nature of the nodes, in terms of sensing
169 or communication capabilities.
170 \item The node deployment method, which may be random or deterministic.
171 \item Additional requirements for energy-efficient and connected coverage.
174 The choice of non-disjoint or disjoint cover sets (sensors participate or not in
175 many cover sets) can be added to the above list.
177 \subsection{Centralized approaches}
179 The major approach is to divide/organize the sensors into a suitable number of
180 cover sets where each set completely covers an interest region and to activate
181 these cover sets successively. The centralized algorithms always provide nearly
182 or close to optimal solution since the algorithm has global view of the whole
183 network. Note that centralized algorithms have the advantage of requiring very
184 low processing power from the sensor nodes, which usually have limited
185 processing capabilities. The main drawback of this kind of approach is its
186 higher cost in communications, since the node that will make the decision needs
187 information from all the sensor nodes. \textcolor{blue}{Exact or heuristic
188 approaches are designed to provide cover sets. Contrary to exact methods,
189 heuristic ones can handle very large and centralized problems. They are
190 proposed to reduce computational overhead such as energy consumption, delay,
191 and generally allow to increase the network lifetime.}
193 The first algorithms proposed in the literature consider that the cover sets are
194 disjoint: a sensor node appears in exactly one of the generated cover
195 sets~\cite{abrams2004set,cardei2005improving,Slijepcevic01powerefficient}. In
196 the case of non-disjoint algorithms \cite{pujari2011high}, sensors may
197 participate in more than one cover set. In some cases, this may prolong the
198 lifetime of the network in comparison to the disjoint cover set algorithms, but
199 designing algorithms for non-disjoint cover sets generally induces a higher
200 order of complexity. Moreover, in case of a sensor's failure, non-disjoint
201 scheduling policies are less resilient and reliable because a sensor may be
202 involved in more than one cover sets.
204 In~\cite{yang2014maximum}, the authors have considered a linear programming
205 approach to select the minimum number of working sensor nodes, in order to
206 preserve a maximum coverage and to extend lifetime of the network. Cheng et
207 al.~\cite{cheng2014energy} have defined a heuristic algorithm called Cover Sets
208 Balance (CSB), which chooses a set of active nodes using the tuple (data
209 coverage range, residual energy). Then, they have introduced a new Correlated
210 Node Set Computing (CNSC) algorithm to find the correlated node set for a given
211 node. After that, they proposed a High Residual Energy First (HREF) node
212 selection algorithm to minimize the number of active nodes so as to prolong the
213 network lifetime. Various centralized methods based on column generation
214 approaches have also been
215 proposed~\cite{gentili2013,castano2013column,rossi2012exact,deschinkel2012column}.
216 \textcolor{blue}{In~\cite{gentili2013}, authors highlight the trade-off between
217 the network lifetime and the coverage percentage. They show that network
218 lifetime can be hugely improved by decreasing the coverage ratio.}
220 \subsection{Distributed approaches}
222 In distributed and localized coverage algorithms, the required computation to
223 schedule the activity of sensor nodes will be done by the cooperation among
224 neighboring nodes. These algorithms may require more computation power for the
225 processing by the cooperating sensor nodes, but they are more scalable for large
226 WSNs. Localized and distributed algorithms generally result in non-disjoint set
229 Many distributed algorithms have been developed to perform the scheduling so as
230 to preserve coverage, see for example
231 \cite{Gallais06,Tian02,Ye03,Zhang05,HeinzelmanCB02, yardibi2010distributed,
232 prasad2007distributed,Misra}. Distributed algorithms typically operate in
233 rounds for a predetermined duration. At the beginning of each round, a sensor
234 exchanges information with its neighbors and makes a decision to either remain
235 turned on or to go to sleep for the round. This decision is basically made on
236 simple greedy criteria like the largest uncovered area
237 \cite{Berman05efficientenergy} or maximum uncovered targets
238 \cite{lu2003coverage}. The Distributed Adaptive Sleep Scheduling Algorithm
239 (DASSA) \cite{yardibi2010distributed} does not require location information of
240 sensors while maintaining connectivity and satisfying a user defined coverage
241 target. In DASSA, nodes use the residual energy levels and feedback from the
242 sink for scheduling the activity of their neighbors. This feedback mechanism
243 reduces the randomness in scheduling that would otherwise occur due to the
244 absence of location information. In \cite{ChinhVu}, the author have designed a
245 novel distributed heuristic, called Distributed Energy-efficient Scheduling for
246 k-coverage (DESK), which ensures that the energy consumption among the sensors
247 is balanced and the lifetime maximized while the coverage requirement is
248 maintained. This heuristic works in rounds, requires only one-hop neighbor
249 information, and each sensor decides its status (active or sleep) based on the
250 perimeter coverage model from~\cite{Huang:2003:CPW:941350.941367}.
252 The works presented in \cite{Bang, Zhixin, Zhang} focus on coverage-aware,
253 distributed energy-efficient, and distributed clustering methods respectively,
254 which aim at extending the network lifetime, while the coverage is ensured.
255 More recently, Shibo et al. \cite{Shibo} have expressed the coverage problem as
256 a minimum weight submodular set cover problem and proposed a Distributed
257 Truncated Greedy Algorithm (DTGA) to solve it. They take advantage from both
258 temporal and spatial correlations between data sensed by different sensors, and
259 leverage prediction, to improve the lifetime. In \cite{xu2001geography}, Xu et
260 al. have described an algorithm, called Geographical Adaptive Fidelity (GAF),
261 which uses geographic location information to divide the area of interest into
262 fixed square grids. Within each grid, it keeps only one node staying awake to
263 take the responsibility of sensing and communication.
265 Some other approaches (outside the scope of our work) do not consider a
266 synchronized and predetermined time-slot where the sensors are active or not.
267 Indeed, each sensor maintains its own timer and its wake-up time is randomized
268 \cite{Ye03} or regulated \cite{cardei2005maximum} over time.
270 The MuDiLCO protocol (for Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization
271 protocol) presented in this paper is an extension of the approach introduced
272 in~\cite{idrees2014coverage}. In~\cite{idrees2014coverage}, the protocol is
273 deployed over only two subregions. Simulation results have shown that it was
274 more interesting to divide the area into several subregions, given the
275 computation complexity. Compared to our previous paper, in this one we study the
276 possibility of dividing the sensing phase into multiple rounds and we also add
277 an improved model of energy consumption to assess the efficiency of our
278 approach. In fact, in this paper we make a multiround optimization, while it was
279 a single round optimization in our previous work. \textcolor{blue}{The idea is
280 to take advantage of the pre-sensing phase to plan the sensor's activity for
281 several rounds instead of one, thus saving energy. In addition, when the
282 optimization problem becomes more complex, its resolution is stopped after a
283 given time threshold}.
286 \section{MuDiLCO protocol description}
289 \subsection{Assumptions}
291 We consider a randomly and uniformly deployed network consisting of static
292 wireless sensors. The sensors are deployed in high density to ensure initially
293 a high coverage ratio of the interested area. We assume that all nodes are
294 homogeneous in terms of communication and processing capabilities, and
295 heterogeneous from the point of view of energy provision. Each sensor is
296 supposed to get information on its location either through hardware such as
297 embedded GPS or through location discovery algorithms.
299 To model a sensor node's coverage area, we consider the boolean disk coverage
300 model which is the most widely used sensor coverage model in the
301 literature. Thus, each sensor has a constant sensing range $R_s$ and all space
302 points within the disk centered at the sensor with the radius of the sensing
303 range is said to be covered by this sensor. We also assume that the
304 communication range satisfies $R_c \geq 2R_s$. In fact, Zhang and
305 Zhou~\cite{Zhang05} proved that if the transmission range fulfills the previous
306 hypothesis, a complete coverage of a convex area implies connectivity among the
309 \indent Instead of working with the coverage area, we consider for each sensor a
310 set of points called primary points~\cite{idrees2014coverage}. We assume that
311 the sensing disk defined by a sensor is covered if all the primary points of
312 this sensor are covered. By knowing the position of wireless sensor node
313 (centered at the the position $\left(p_x,p_y\right)$) and it's sensing range
314 $R_s$, we define up to 25 primary points $X_1$ to $X_{25}$ as decribed on
315 Figure~\ref{fig1}. The optimal number of primary points is investigated in
316 section~\ref{ch4:sec:04:06}.
318 The coordinates of the primary points are defined as follows:\\
319 %$(p_x,p_y)$ = point center of wireless sensor node\\
321 $X_2=( p_x + R_s * (1), p_y + R_s * (0) )$\\
322 $X_3=( p_x + R_s * (-1), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
323 $X_4=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (1) )$\\
324 $X_5=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (-1 )) $\\
325 $X_6=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
326 $X_7=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
327 $X_8=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
328 $X_9=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
329 $X_{10}= ( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
330 $X_{11}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0))$\\
331 $X_{12}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
332 $X_{13}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
333 $X_{14}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{1}{2})) $\\
334 $X_{15}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{1}{2})) $\\
335 $X_{16}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2})) $\\
336 $X_{17}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2})) $\\
337 $X_{18}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
338 $X_{19}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
339 $X_{20}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{1}{2})) $\\
340 $X_{21}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (-\frac{1}{2})) $\\
341 $X_{22}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2})) $\\
342 $X_{23}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2})) $\\
343 $X_{24}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2})) $\\
344 $X_{25}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2})) $.
348 \includegraphics[scale=0.375]{fig26.pdf}
350 \caption{Wireless sensor node represented by up to 25~primary points}
353 \subsection{Background idea}
355 \textcolor{blue}{The WSN area of interest is, at first, divided into
356 regular homogeneous subregions using a divide-and-conquer algorithm. Then, our protocol will be executed in a distributed way in each
357 subregion simultaneously to schedule nodes' activities for one sensing
358 period. Sensor nodes are assumed to be deployed almost uniformly and with high
359 density over the region. The regular subdivision is made so that the number
360 of hops between any pairs of sensors inside a subregion is less than or equal
363 As can be seen in Figure~\ref{fig2}, our protocol works in periods fashion,
364 where each period is divided into 4~phases: Information~Exchange,
365 Leader~Election, Decision, and Sensing. Each sensing phase may be itself
366 divided into $T$ rounds \textcolor{blue} {of equal duration} and for each round
367 a set of sensors (a cover set) is responsible for the sensing task. In this way
368 a multiround optimization process is performed during each period after
369 Information~Exchange and Leader~Election phases, in order to produce $T$ cover
370 sets that will take the mission of sensing for $T$ rounds.
372 \centering \includegraphics[width=125mm]{Modelgeneral.pdf} % 70mm
373 \caption{The MuDiLCO protocol scheme executed on each node}
377 This protocol minimizes the impact of unexpected node failure (not due to
378 batteries running out of energy), because it works in periods.
379 On the one hand, if a node failure is detected before making the decision, the
380 node will not participate to this phase, and, on the other hand, if the node
381 failure occurs after the decision, the sensing task of the network will be
382 temporarily affected: only during the period of sensing until a new period
383 starts. \textcolor{blue}{The duration of the rounds is a predefined
384 parameter. Round duration should be long enough to hide the system control
385 overhead and short enough to minimize the negative effects in case of node
388 The energy consumption and some other constraints can easily be taken into
389 account, since the sensors can update and then exchange their information
390 (including their residual energy) at the beginning of each period. However, the
391 pre-sensing phases (Information Exchange, Leader Election, and Decision) are
392 energy consuming for some nodes, even when they do not join the network to
395 We define two types of packets that will be used by the proposed protocol:
396 \begin{enumerate}[(a)]
397 \item INFO packet: such a packet will be sent by each sensor node to all the
398 nodes inside a subregion for information exchange.
399 \item Active-Sleep packet: sent by the leader to all the nodes inside a
400 subregion to inform them to remain Active or to go Sleep during the sensing
404 There are five status for each sensor node in the network:
405 \begin{enumerate}[(a)]
406 \item LISTENING: sensor node is waiting for a decision (to be active or not);
407 \item COMPUTATION: sensor node has been elected as leader and applies the
408 optimization process;
409 \item ACTIVE: sensor node is taking part in the monitoring of the area;
410 \item SLEEP: sensor node is turned off to save energy;
411 \item COMMUNICATION: sensor node is transmitting or receiving packet.
414 Below, we describe each phase in more details.
416 \subsection{Information Exchange Phase}
418 Each sensor node $j$ sends its position, remaining energy $RE_j$, and the number
419 of neighbors $NBR_j$ to all wireless sensor nodes in its subregion by using an
420 INFO packet (containing information on position coordinates, current remaining
421 energy, sensor node ID, number of its one-hop live neighbors) and then waits for
422 packets sent by other nodes. After that, each node will have information about
423 all the sensor nodes in the subregion. In our model, the remaining energy
424 corresponds to the time that a sensor can live in the active mode.
426 \subsection{Leader Election phase}
428 This step consists in choosing the Wireless Sensor Node Leader (WSNL), which
429 will be responsible for executing the coverage algorithm. Each subregion in the
430 area of interest will select its own WSNL independently for each period. All
431 the sensor nodes cooperate to elect a WSNL. The nodes in the same subregion
432 will select the leader based on the received information from all other nodes in
433 the same subregion. The selection criteria are, in order of importance: larger
434 number of neighbors, larger remaining energy, and then in case of equality,
435 larger index. Observations on previous simulations suggest to use the number of
436 one-hop neighbors as the primary criterion to reduce energy consumption due to
439 \subsection{Decision phase}
442 Each WSNL will \textcolor{blue}{solve an integer program to select which cover
443 sets will be activated in the following sensing phase to cover the subregion
444 to which it belongs. $T$ cover sets will be produced, one for each round. The
445 WSNL will send an Active-Sleep packet to each sensor in the subregion based on
446 the algorithm's results, indicating if the sensor should be active or not in
447 each round of the sensing phase.}
449 As shown in Algorithm~\ref{alg:MuDiLCO}, the leader will execute an optimization
450 algorithm based on an integer program. The integer program is based on the model
451 proposed by \cite{pedraza2006} with some modifications, where the objective is
452 to find a maximum number of disjoint cover sets. To fulfill this goal, the
453 authors proposed an integer program which forces undercoverage and overcoverage
454 of targets to become minimal at the same time. They use binary variables
455 $x_{jl}$ to indicate if sensor $j$ belongs to cover set $l$. In our model, we
456 consider binary variables $X_{t,j}$ to determine the possibility of activating
457 sensor $j$ during round $t$ of a given sensing phase. We also consider primary
458 points as targets. The set of primary points is denoted by $P$ and the set of
459 sensors by $J$. Only sensors able to be alive during at least one round are
460 involved in the integer program.
462 For a primary point $p$, let $\alpha_{j,p}$ denote the indicator function of
463 whether the point $p$ is covered, that is:
465 \alpha_{j,p} = \left \{
467 1 & \mbox{if the primary point $p$ is covered} \\
468 & \mbox{by sensor node $j$}, \\
469 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
473 The number of active sensors that cover the primary point $p$ during
474 round $t$ is equal to $\sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{j,p} * X_{t,j}$ where:
478 1& \mbox{if sensor $j$ is active during round $t$,} \\
479 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
483 We define the Overcoverage variable $\Theta_{t,p}$ as:
485 \Theta_{t,p} = \left \{
487 0 & \mbox{if the primary point $p$}\\
488 & \mbox{is not covered during round $t$,}\\
489 \left( \sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{jp} * X_{tj} \right)- 1 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
493 More precisely, $\Theta_{t,p}$ represents the number of active sensor nodes
494 minus one that cover the primary point $p$ during round $t$. The
495 Undercoverage variable $U_{t,p}$ of the primary point $p$ during round $t$ is
500 1 &\mbox{if the primary point $p$ is not covered during round $t$,} \\
501 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
506 Our coverage optimization problem can then be formulated as follows:
508 \min \sum_{t=1}^{T} \sum_{p=1}^{|P|} \left(W_{\theta}* \Theta_{t,p} + W_{U} * U_{t,p} \right) \label{eq15}
513 \sum_{j=1}^{|J|} \alpha_{j,p} * X_{t,j} = \Theta_{t,p} - U_{t,p} + 1 \label{eq16} \hspace{6 mm} \forall p \in P, t = 1,\dots,T
517 \sum_{t=1}^{T} X_{t,j} \leq \floor*{RE_{j}/E_{R}} \hspace{10 mm}\forall j \in J\hspace{6 mm}
522 X_{t,j} \in \lbrace0,1\rbrace, \hspace{10 mm} \forall j \in J, t = 1,\dots,T \label{eq17}
526 U_{t,p} \in \lbrace0,1\rbrace, \hspace{10 mm}\forall p \in P, t = 1,\dots,T \label{eq18}
530 \Theta_{t,p} \geq 0 \hspace{10 mm}\forall p \in P, t = 1,\dots,T \label{eq178}
534 \item $X_{t,j}$: indicates whether or not the sensor $j$ is actively sensing
535 during round $t$ (1 if yes and 0 if not);
536 \item $\Theta_{t,p}$ - {\it overcoverage}: the number of sensors minus one that
537 are covering the primary point $p$ during round $t$;
538 \item $U_{t,p}$ - {\it undercoverage}: indicates whether or not the primary
539 point $p$ is being covered during round $t$ (1 if not covered and 0 if
543 The first group of constraints indicates that some primary point $p$ should be
544 covered by at least one sensor and, if it is not always the case, overcoverage
545 and undercoverage variables help balancing the restriction equations by taking
546 positive values. The constraint given by equation~(\ref{eq144}) guarantees that
547 the sensor has enough energy ($RE_j$ corresponds to its remaining energy) to be
548 alive during the selected rounds knowing that $E_{R}$ is the amount of energy
549 required to be alive during one round.
551 There are two main objectives. First, we limit the overcoverage of primary
552 points in order to activate a minimum number of sensors. Second we prevent the
553 absence of monitoring on some parts of the subregion by minimizing the
554 undercoverage. The weights $W_\theta$ and $W_U$ must be properly chosen so as
555 to guarantee that the maximum number of points are covered during each round.
556 In our simulations, priority is given to the coverage by choosing $W_{U}$ very
557 large compared to $W_{\theta}$.
559 \textcolor{blue}{The size of the problem depends on the number of variables and
560 constraints. The number of variables is linked to the number of alive sensors
561 $A \subseteq J$, the number of rounds $T$, and the number of primary points
562 $P$. Thus the integer program contains $A*T$ variables of type $X_{t,j}$,
563 $P*T$ overcoverage variables and $P*T$ undercoverage variables. The number of
564 constraints is equal to $P*T$ (for constraints (\ref{eq16})) $+$ $A$ (for
565 constraints (\ref{eq144})).}
567 \subsection{Sensing phase}
569 The sensing phase consists of $T$ rounds. Each sensor node in the subregion will
570 receive an Active-Sleep packet from WSNL, informing it to stay awake or to go to
571 sleep for each round of the sensing phase. Algorithm~\ref{alg:MuDiLCO}, which
572 will be executed by each sensor node~$s_j$ at the beginning of a period,
573 explains how the Active-Sleep packet is obtained.
575 \begin{algorithm}[h!]
577 \If{ $RE_j \geq E_{R}$ }{
578 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMMUNICATION}\;
579 \emph{Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in the subregion}\;
580 \emph{Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in the subregion}\;
582 \emph{LeaderID = Leader election}\;
583 \If{$ s_j.ID = LeaderID $}{
584 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMPUTATION}\;
585 \emph{$\left\{\left(X_{1,k},\dots,X_{T,k}\right)\right\}_{k \in J}$ =
586 Execute Integer Program Algorithm($T,J$)}\;
587 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMMUNICATION}\;
588 \emph{Send $ActiveSleep()$ packet to each node $k$ in subregion: a packet \\
589 with vector of activity scheduling $(X_{1,k},\dots,X_{T,k})$}\;
590 \emph{Update $RE_j $}\;
593 \emph{$s_j.status$ = LISTENING}\;
594 \emph{Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader}\;
595 \emph{Update $RE_j $}\;
598 \Else { Exclude $s_j$ from entering in the current sensing phase}
600 \caption{MuDiLCO($s_j$)}
605 \section{Experimental framework}
608 \subsection{Simulation setup}
610 We conducted a series of simulations to evaluate the efficiency and the
611 relevance of our approach, using the discrete event simulator OMNeT++
612 \cite{varga}. The simulation parameters are summarized in Table~\ref{table3}.
613 Each experiment for a network is run over 25~different random topologies and the
614 results presented hereafter are the average of these 25 runs.
615 We performed simulations for five different densities varying from 50 to
616 250~nodes deployed over a $50 \times 25~m^2 $ sensing field. More precisely,
617 the deployment is controlled at a coarse scale in order to ensure that the
618 deployed nodes can cover the sensing field with the given sensing range.
621 \caption{Relevant parameters for network initializing.}
625 Parameter & Value \\ [0.5ex]
627 Sensing field size & $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ \\
628 Network size & 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250~nodes \\
629 Initial energy & 500-700~joules \\
630 Sensing time for one round & 60 Minutes \\
631 $E_{R}$ & 36 Joules\\
639 \textcolor{blue}{Our protocol is declined into four versions: MuDiLCO-1,
640 MuDiLCO-3, MuDiLCO-5, and MuDiLCO-7, corresponding respectively to $T=1,3,5,7$
641 ($T$ the number of rounds in one sensing period). Since the time resolution
642 may be prohibitive when the size of the problem increases, a time limit
643 threshold has been fixed when solving large instances. In these cases, the
644 solver returns the best solution found, which is not necessary the optimal
645 one. In practice, we only set time limit values for $T=5$ and $T=7$. In fact,
646 for $T=5$ we limited the time for 250~nodes, whereas for $T=7$ it was for the
647 three largest network sizes. Therefore we used the following values (in
648 second): 0.03 for 250~nodes when $T=5$, while for $T=7$ we chose 0.03, 0.06,
649 and 0.08 for respectively 150, 200, and 250~nodes.
650 These time limit thresholds have been set empirically. The basic idea consists
651 in considering the average execution time to solve the integer programs to
652 optimality, then in dividing this average time by three to set the threshold
653 value. After that, this threshold value is increased if necessary so that
654 the solver is able to deliver a feasible solution within the time limit. In
655 fact, selecting the optimal values for the time limits will be investigated in
658 In the following, we will make comparisons with two other methods. The first
659 method, called DESK and proposed by \cite{ChinhVu}, is a full distributed
660 coverage algorithm. The second method, called GAF~\cite{xu2001geography},
661 consists in dividing the region into fixed squares. During the decision phase,
662 in each square, one sensor is then chosen to remain active during the sensing
665 Some preliminary experiments were performed to study the choice of the number of
666 subregions which subdivides the sensing field, considering different network
667 sizes. They show that as the number of subregions increases, so does the network
668 lifetime. Moreover, it makes the MuDiLCO protocol more robust against random
669 network disconnection due to node failures. However, too many subdivisions
670 reduce the advantage of the optimization. In fact, there is a balance between
671 the benefit from the optimization and the execution time needed to solve
672 it. In the following we have set the number of subregions to 16.
674 \subsection{Energy model}
676 We use an energy consumption model proposed by~\cite{ChinhVu} and based on
677 \cite{raghunathan2002energy} with slight modifications. The energy consumption
678 for sending/receiving the packets is added, whereas the part related to the
679 sensing range is removed because we consider a fixed sensing range.
681 For our energy consumption model, we refer to the sensor node Medusa~II which
682 uses an Atmels AVR ATmega103L microcontroller~\cite{raghunathan2002energy}. The
683 typical architecture of a sensor is composed of four subsystems: the MCU
684 subsystem which is capable of computation, communication subsystem (radio) which
685 is responsible for transmitting/receiving messages, the sensing subsystem that
686 collects data, and the power supply which powers the complete sensor node
687 \cite{raghunathan2002energy}. Each of the first three subsystems can be turned
688 on or off depending on the current status of the sensor. Energy consumption
689 (expressed in milliWatt per second) for the different status of the sensor is
690 summarized in Table~\ref{table4}.
693 \caption{The Energy Consumption Model}
695 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
697 Sensor status & MCU & Radio & Sensing & Power (mW) \\ [0.5ex]
699 LISTENING & on & on & on & 20.05 \\
701 ACTIVE & on & off & on & 9.72 \\
703 SLEEP & off & off & off & 0.02 \\
705 COMPUTATION & on & on & on & 26.83 \\
712 For the sake of simplicity we ignore the energy needed to turn on the radio, to
713 start up the sensor node, to move from one status to another, etc.
714 Thus, when a sensor becomes active (i.e., it has already chosen its status), it
715 can turn its radio off to save battery. MuDiLCO uses two types of packets for
716 communication. The size of the INFO packet and Active-Sleep packet are 112~bits
717 and 24~bits respectively. The value of energy spent to send a 1-bit-content
718 message is obtained by using the equation in ~\cite{raghunathan2002energy} to
719 calculate the energy cost for transmitting messages and we propose the same
720 value for receiving the packets. The energy needed to send or receive a 1-bit
721 packet is equal to 0.2575~mW.
723 The initial energy of each node is randomly set in the interval $[500;700]$. A
724 sensor node will not participate in the next round if its remaining energy is
725 less than $E_{R}=36~\mbox{Joules}$, the minimum energy needed for the node to
726 stay alive during one round. This value has been computed by multiplying the
727 energy consumed in active state (9.72 mW) by the time in second for one round
728 (3600 seconds). According to the interval of initial energy, a sensor may be
729 alive during at most 20 rounds.
733 To evaluate our approach we consider the following performance metrics:
737 \item {{\bf Coverage Ratio (CR)}:} the coverage ratio measures how much of the area
738 of a sensor field is covered. In our case, the sensing field is represented as
739 a connected grid of points and we use each grid point as a sample point to
740 compute the coverage. The coverage ratio can be calculated by:
743 \mbox{CR}(\%) = \frac{\mbox{$n^t$}}{\mbox{$N$}} \times 100,
745 where $n^t$ is the number of covered grid points by the active sensors of all
746 subregions during round $t$ in the current sensing phase and $N$ is the total number
747 of grid points in the sensing field of the network. In our simulations $N = 51
748 \times 26 = 1326$ grid points.
750 \item{{\bf Number of Active Sensors Ratio (ASR)}:} it is important to have as
751 few active nodes as possible in each round, in order to minimize the
752 communication overhead and maximize the network lifetime. The Active Sensors
753 Ratio is defined as follows:
755 \scriptsize \mbox{ASR}(\%) = \frac{\sum\limits_{r=1}^R
756 \mbox{$A_r^t$}}{\mbox{$|J|$}} \times 100,
758 where $A_r^t$ is the number of active sensors in the subregion $r$ during round
759 $t$ in the current sensing phase, $|J|$ is the total number of sensors in the
760 network, and $R$ is the total number of subregions in the network.
762 \item {{\bf Network Lifetime}:} we define the network lifetime as the time until
763 the coverage ratio drops below a predefined threshold. We denote by
764 $Lifetime_{95}$ (respectively $Lifetime_{50}$) the amount of time during
765 which the network can satisfy an area coverage greater than $95\%$
766 (respectively $50\%$). We assume that the network is alive until all nodes have
767 been drained of their energy or the sensor network becomes
768 disconnected. Network connectivity is important because an active sensor node
769 without connectivity towards a base station cannot transmit information on an
770 event in the area that it monitors.
772 \item {{\bf Energy Consumption (EC)}:} the average energy consumption can be
773 seen as the total energy consumed by the sensors during the $Lifetime_{95}$ or
774 $Lifetime_{50}$ divided by the number of rounds. EC can be computed as
779 \mbox{EC} = \frac{\sum\limits_{m=1}^{M} \left[ \left( E^{\mbox{com}}_m+E^{\mbox{list}}_m+E^{\mbox{comp}}_m \right) +\sum\limits_{t=1}^{T_m} \left( E^{a}_t+E^{s}_t \right) \right]}{\sum\limits_{m=1}^{M} T_m},
782 where $M$ is the number of periods and $T_m$ the number of rounds in a
783 period~$m$, both during $Lifetime_{95}$ or $Lifetime_{50}$. The total energy
784 consumed by the sensors (EC) comes through taking into consideration four main
785 energy factors. The first one , denoted $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{com}}_m$,
786 represents the energy consumption spent by all the nodes for wireless
787 communications during period $m$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{list}}_m$, the next
788 factor, corresponds to the energy consumed by the sensors in LISTENING status
789 before receiving the decision to go active or sleep in period $m$.
790 $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{comp}}_m$ refers to the energy needed by all the leader
791 nodes to solve the integer program during a period. Finally, $E^a_t$ and $E^s_t$
792 indicate the energy consumed by the whole network in round $t$.
794 %\item {Network Lifetime:} we have defined the network lifetime as the time until all
795 %nodes have been drained of their energy or each sensor network monitoring an area has become disconnected.
797 \item {{\bf Execution Time}:} a sensor node has limited energy resources and
798 computing power, therefore it is important that the proposed algorithm has the
799 shortest possible execution time. The energy of a sensor node must be mainly
800 used for the sensing phase, not for the pre-sensing ones.
802 \item {{\bf Stopped simulation runs}:} a simulation ends when the sensor network
803 becomes disconnected (some nodes are dead and are not able to send information
804 to the base station). We report the number of simulations that are stopped due
805 to network disconnections and for which round it occurs.
809 \section{Experimental results and analysis}
812 \subsection{Performance analysis for different number of primary points}
813 \label{ch4:sec:04:06}
815 In this section, we study the performance of MuDiLCO-1 approach for different
816 numbers of primary points. The objective of this comparison is to select the
817 suitable number of primary points to be used by a MuDiLCO protocol. In this
818 comparison, MuDiLCO-1 protocol is used with five primary point models, each
819 model corresponding to a number of primary points, which are called Model-5 (it
820 uses 5 primary points), Model-9, Model-13, Model-17, and Model-21.
822 \subsubsection{Coverage ratio}
824 Figure~\ref{Figures/ch4/R2/CR} shows the average coverage ratio for 150 deployed
825 nodes. As can be seen, at the beginning the models which use a larger number of
826 primary points provide slightly better coverage ratios, but latter they are the
828 Moreover, when the number of periods increases, the coverage ratio produced by
829 all models decrease due to dead nodes. However, Model-5 is the one with the
830 slowest decrease due to lower numbers of active sensors in the earlier periods.
831 Overall this model is slightly more efficient than the other ones, because it
832 offers a good coverage ratio for a larger number of periods.
835 \includegraphics[scale=0.5] {R2/CR.pdf}
836 \caption{Coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes}
837 \label{Figures/ch4/R2/CR}
840 \subsubsection{Network lifetime}
842 Finally, we study the effect of increasing the number of primary points on the lifetime of the network.
843 As highlighted by Figures~\ref{Figures/ch4/R2/LT}(a) and
844 \ref{Figures/ch4/R2/LT}(b), the network lifetime obviously increases when the
845 size of the network increases, with Model-5 which leads to the largest lifetime
851 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{R2/LT95.pdf}\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(a) \\
853 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{R2/LT50.pdf}\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(b)
855 \caption{Network lifetime for (a) $Lifetime_{95}$ and (b) $Lifetime_{50}$}
856 \label{Figures/ch4/R2/LT}
859 Comparison shows that Model-5, which uses less number of primary points, is the
860 best one because it is less energy consuming during the network lifetime. It is
861 also the better one from the point of view of coverage ratio, as stated
862 before. Therefore, we have chosen the model with five primary points for all the
863 experiments presented thereafter.
865 \subsection{Coverage ratio}
867 Figure~\ref{fig3} shows the average coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes. We
868 can notice that for the first thirty rounds both DESK and GAF provide a coverage
869 which is a little bit better than the one of MuDiLCO. This is due to the fact
870 that, in comparison with MuDiLCO which uses optimization to put in SLEEP status
871 redundant sensors, more sensor nodes remain active with DESK and GAF. As a
872 consequence, when the number of rounds increases, a larger number of node
873 failures can be observed in DESK and GAF, resulting in a faster decrease of the
874 coverage ratio. Furthermore, our protocol allows to maintain a coverage ratio
875 greater than 50\% for far more rounds. Overall, the proposed sensor activity
876 scheduling based on optimization in MuDiLCO maintains higher coverage ratios of
877 the area of interest for a larger number of rounds. It also means that MuDiLCO
878 saves more energy, with less dead nodes, at most for several rounds, and thus
879 should extend the network lifetime. \textcolor{blue}{MuDiLCO-7 seems to have
880 most of the time the best coverage ratio up to round~80, after MuDiLCO-5 is
885 \includegraphics[scale=0.5] {F/CR.pdf}
886 \caption{Average coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes}
890 \subsection{Active sensors ratio}
892 It is crucial to have as few active nodes as possible in each round, in order to
893 minimize the communication overhead and maximize the network
894 lifetime. Figure~\ref{fig4} presents the active sensor ratio for 150 deployed
895 nodes all along the network lifetime. It appears that up to round thirteen, DESK
896 and GAF have respectively 37.6\% and 44.8\% of nodes in ACTIVE status, whereas
897 MuDiLCO clearly outperforms them with only 24.8\% of active nodes. Obviously,
898 in that case DESK and GAF have less active nodes, since they have activated many
899 nodes at the beginning. Anyway, MuDiLCO activates the available nodes in a more
904 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/ASR.pdf}
905 \caption{Active sensors ratio for 150 deployed nodes}
909 \subsection{Stopped simulation runs}
911 Figure~\ref{fig6} reports the cumulative percentage of stopped simulations runs
912 per round for 150 deployed nodes. This figure gives the breakpoint for each
913 method. DESK stops first, after approximately 45~rounds, because it consumes
914 the more energy by turning on a large number of redundant nodes during the
915 sensing phase. GAF stops secondly for the same reason than DESK. Let us
916 emphasize that the simulation continues as long as a network in a subregion is
921 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/SR.pdf}
922 \caption{Cumulative percentage of stopped simulation runs for 150 deployed nodes }
926 \subsection{Energy consumption} \label{subsec:EC}
928 We measure the energy consumed by the sensors during the communication,
929 listening, computation, active, and sleep status for different network densities
930 and compare it with the two other methods. Figures~\ref{fig7}(a)
931 and~\ref{fig7}(b) illustrate the energy consumption, considering different
932 network sizes, for $Lifetime_{95}$ and $Lifetime_{50}$.
937 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/EC95.pdf}} & (a) \\
939 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/EC50.pdf}} & (b)
941 \caption{Energy consumption for (a) $Lifetime_{95}$ and
946 The results show that MuDiLCO is the most competitive from the energy
947 consumption point of view. The other approaches have a high energy consumption
948 due to activating a larger number of redundant nodes as well as the energy
949 consumed during the different status of the sensor node.
951 \textcolor{blue}{Energy consumption increases with the size of the networks and
952 the number of rounds. The curve Unlimited-MuDiLCO-7 shows that energy
953 consumption due to the time spent to solve the integer program to optimality
954 increases drastically with the size of the network. When the resolution time
955 is limited for large network sizes, the energy consumption remains of the same
956 order whatever the MuDiLCO version. As can be seen with MuDiLCO-7.}
958 \subsection{Execution time}
960 We observe the impact of the network size and of the number of rounds on the
961 computation time. Figure~\ref{fig77} gives the average execution times in
962 seconds (needed to solve optimization problem) for different values of $T$. The
963 modeling language for Mathematical Programming (AMPL)~\cite{AMPL} is employed to
964 generate the Mixed Integer Linear Program instance in a standard format, which
965 is then read and solved by the optimization solver GLPK (GNU linear Programming
966 Kit available in the public domain) \cite{glpk} through a Branch-and-Bound
967 method. The original execution time is computed on a laptop DELL with Intel
968 Core~i3~2370~M (2.4 GHz) processor (2 cores) and the MIPS (Million Instructions
969 Per Second) rate equal to 35330. To be consistent with the use of a sensor node
970 with Atmels AVR ATmega103L microcontroller (6 MHz) and a MIPS rate equal to 6 to
971 run the optimization resolution, this time is multiplied by 2944.2 $\left(
972 \frac{35330}{2} \times \frac{1}{6} \right)$ and reported on Figure~\ref{fig77}
973 for different network sizes.
977 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/T.pdf}
978 \caption{Execution Time (in seconds)}
982 As expected, the execution time increases with the number of rounds $T$ taken
983 into account to schedule the sensing phase. \textcolor{blue}{Obviously, the
984 number of variables and constraints of the integer program increases with $T$,
985 as explained in section~\ref{decision}, the times obtained for $T=1,3$ or
986 $5$ seem bearable. But for $T=7$, without any limitation of the time, they
987 become quickly unsuitable for a sensor node, especially when the sensor
988 network size increases as demonstrated by Unlimited-MuDiLCO-7. Notice that
989 for 250 nodes, we also limited the execution time for $T=5$, otherwise the
990 execution time would have been above MuDiLCO-7. On the one hand, a large
991 value for $T$ permits to reduce the energy-overhead due to the three
992 pre-sensing phases, on the other hand a leader node may waste a considerable
993 amount of energy to solve the optimization problem. Thus, limiting the time
994 resolution for large instances allows to reduce the energy consumption without
995 any impact on the coverage quality.}
997 \subsection{Network lifetime}
999 The next two figures, Figures~\ref{fig8}(a) and \ref{fig8}(b), illustrate the
1000 network lifetime for different network sizes, respectively for $Lifetime_{95}$
1001 and $Lifetime_{50}$. Both figures show that the network lifetime increases
1002 together with the number of sensor nodes, whatever the protocol, thanks to the
1003 node density which results in more and more redundant nodes that can be
1004 deactivated and thus save energy. Compared to the other approaches, our MuDiLCO
1005 protocol maximizes the lifetime of the network. In particular the gain in
1006 lifetime for a coverage over 95\%, and a network of 250~nodes, is greater than
1007 38\% when switching from GAF to MuDiLCO-5.
1008 %The lower performance that can be observed for MuDiLCO-7 in case
1009 %of $Lifetime_{95}$ with large wireless sensor networks results from the
1010 %difficulty of the optimization problem to be solved by the integer program.
1011 %This point was already noticed in subsection \ref{subsec:EC} devoted to the
1012 %energy consumption, since network lifetime and energy consumption are directly
1014 \textcolor{blue}{Overall, it clearly appears that computing a scheduling for
1015 several rounds is possible and relevant, providing that the execution time to
1016 solve the optimization problem for large instances is limited. Notice that
1017 rather than limiting the execution time, similar results might be obtained by
1018 replacing the computation of the exact solution with the finding of a
1019 suboptimal one using a heuristic approach. For our simulation setup and
1020 considering the different metrics, MuDiLCO-5 seems to be the most suited
1021 method in comparison with MuDiLCO-7.}
1026 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5125]{F/LT95.pdf}} & (a) \\
1028 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5125]{F/LT50.pdf}} & (b)
1030 \caption{Network lifetime for (a) $Lifetime_{95}$ and
1031 (b) $Lifetime_{50}$}
1035 \section{Conclusion and future works}
1036 \label{sec:conclusion}
1038 We have addressed the problem of the coverage and of the lifetime optimization
1039 in wireless sensor networks. This is a key issue as sensor nodes have limited
1040 resources in terms of memory, energy, and computational power. To cope with this
1041 problem, the field of sensing is divided into smaller subregions using the
1042 concept of divide-and-conquer method, and then we propose a protocol which
1043 optimizes coverage and lifetime performances in each subregion. Our protocol,
1044 called MuDiLCO (Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization) combines
1045 two efficient techniques: network leader election and sensor activity
1046 scheduling. The activity scheduling in each subregion works in periods, where
1047 each period consists of four phases: (i) Information Exchange, (ii) Leader
1048 Election, (iii) Decision Phase to plan the activity of the sensors over $T$
1049 rounds, (iv) Sensing Phase itself divided into $T$ rounds.
1051 Simulations results show the relevance of the proposed protocol in terms of
1052 lifetime, coverage ratio, active sensors ratio, energy consumption, execution
1053 time. Indeed, when dealing with large wireless sensor networks, a distributed
1054 approach, like the one we propose, allows to reduce the difficulty of a single
1055 global optimization problem by partitioning it in many smaller problems, one per
1056 subregion, that can be solved more easily. \textcolor{blue}{ Furthermore,
1057 results also show that to plan the activity of sensors for large network
1058 sizes, an approach to obtain a near optimal solution is needed. Indeed, an
1059 exact resolution of the resulting optimization problem leads to prohibitive
1060 computation times and thus to an excessive energy consumption.}
1062 %In future work, we plan to study and propose adjustable sensing range coverage optimization protocol, which computes all active sensor schedules in one time, by using
1063 %optimization methods. This protocol can prolong the network lifetime by minimizing the number of the active sensor nodes near the borders by optimizing the sensing range of sensor nodes.
1064 % use section* for acknowledgement
1066 \section*{Acknowledgment}
1067 This work is partially funded by the Labex ACTION program (contract ANR-11-LABX-01-01).
1068 As a Ph.D. student, Ali Kadhum IDREES would like to gratefully acknowledge the
1069 University of Babylon - Iraq for the financial support, Campus France (The
1070 French national agency for the promotion of higher education, international
1071 student services, and international mobility).%, and the University ofFranche-Comt\'e - France for all the support in France.
1082 %% The Appendices part is started with the command \appendix;
1083 %% appendix sections are then done as normal sections
1089 %% If you have bibdatabase file and want bibtex to generate the
1090 %% bibitems, please use
1092 %% \bibliographystyle{elsarticle-num}
1093 %% \bibliography{<your bibdatabase>}
1094 %% else use the following coding to input the bibitems directly in the
1097 \bibliographystyle{elsarticle-num}
1098 \bibliography{article}
1104 %\end{thebibliography}
1108 %% End of file `elsarticle-template-num.tex'.