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44 \journal{Journal of Supercomputing}
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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$^{a}$, \\
88 Michel Salomon$^{a}$, and Rapha\"el Couturier $^{a}$ \\
89 $^{a}${\em{FEMTO-ST Institute, DISC department, UMR 6174 CNRS, \\
90 Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comt\'e (UBFC), Belfort, France}} \\
91 $^{b}${\em{Department of Computer Science, University 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. The decision process is carried out by a
103 leader node, which solves an optimization problem to produce the best
104 representative sets to be used during the rounds of the sensing phase. The
105 optimization problem formulated as an integer program is solved to optimality
106 through a Branch-and-Bound method for small instances. For larger instances,
107 the best feasible solution found by the solver after a given time limit
108 threshold is considered. Compared with some existing protocols, simulation
109 results based on multiple criteria (energy consumption, coverage ratio, and so
110 on) show that the proposed protocol can prolong efficiently the network lifetime
111 and improve the coverage performance.
115 Wireless Sensor Networks, Area Coverage, Network Lifetime,
116 Optimization, Scheduling, Distributed Computation.
121 \section{Introduction}
123 \indent The fast developments of low-cost sensor devices and wireless
124 communications have allowed the emergence of WSNs. A WSN includes a large number
125 of small, limited-power sensors that can sense, process, and transmit data over
126 a wireless communication. They communicate with each other by using multi-hop
127 wireless communications and cooperate together to monitor the area of interest,
128 so that each measured data can be reported to a monitoring center called sink
129 for further analysis~\cite{Sudip03}. There are several fields of application
130 covering a wide spectrum for a WSN, including health, home, environmental,
131 military, and industrial applications~\cite{Akyildiz02}.
133 On the one hand sensor nodes run on batteries with limited capacities, and it is
134 often costly or simply impossible to replace and/or recharge batteries,
135 especially in remote and hostile environments. Obviously, to achieve a long life
136 of the network it is important to conserve battery power. Therefore, lifetime
137 optimization is one of the most critical issues in wireless sensor networks. On
138 the other hand we must guarantee coverage over the area of interest. To fulfill
139 these two objectives, the main idea is to take advantage of overlapping sensing
140 regions to turn-off redundant sensor nodes and thus save energy. In this paper,
141 we concentrate on the area coverage problem, with the objective of maximizing
142 the network lifetime by using an optimized multiround scheduling.
144 The MuDiLCO protocol (for Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization
145 protocol) presented in this paper is an extension of the approach introduced
146 in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}.
147 % In~\cite{idrees2015distributed}, the protocol is
148 %deployed over only two subregions. Simulation results have shown that it was
149 %more interesting to divide the area into several subregions, given the
150 %computation complexity.
152 \textcolor{blue}{ Compared to our previous paper~\cite{idrees2015distributed},
153 in this one we study the possibility of dividing the sensing phase into
154 multiple rounds. In fact, in this paper we make a multiround optimization,
155 while it was a single round optimization in our previous work. The idea is to
156 take advantage of the pre-sensing phase to plan the sensor's activity for
157 several rounds instead of one, thus saving energy. In addition, when the
158 optimization problem becomes more complex, its resolution is stopped after a
159 given time threshold. In this paper we also analyze the performance of our
160 protocol according to the number of primary points used (the area coverage is
161 replaced by the coverage of a set of particular points called primary points,
162 see Section~\ref{pp}).}
164 The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. The next section reviews the
165 related works in the field. Section~\ref{pd} is devoted to the description of
166 MuDiLCO protocol. Section~\ref{exp} introduces the experimental framework, it
167 describes the simulation setup and the different metrics used to assess the
168 performances. Section~\ref{analysis} shows the simulation results obtained
169 using the discrete event simulator OMNeT++ \cite{varga}. They fully demonstrate
170 the usefulness of the proposed approach. Finally, we give concluding remarks
171 and some suggestions for future works in Section~\ref{sec:conclusion}.
173 \section{Related works}
176 \indent This section is dedicated to the various approaches proposed in the
177 literature for the coverage lifetime maximization problem, where the objective
178 is to optimally schedule sensors' activities in order to extend network lifetime
179 in WSNs. Cardei and Wu \cite{cardei2006energy} provide a taxonomy for coverage
180 algorithms in WSNs according to several design choices:
182 \item Sensors scheduling algorithm implementation, i.e. centralized or
183 distributed/localized algorithms.
184 \item The objective of sensor coverage, i.e. to maximize the network lifetime or
185 to minimize the number of active sensors during a sensing round.
186 \item The homogeneous or heterogeneous nature of the nodes, in terms of sensing
187 or communication capabilities.
188 \item The node deployment method, which may be random or deterministic.
189 \item Additional requirements for energy-efficient and connected coverage.
192 The choice of non-disjoint or disjoint cover sets (sensors participate or not in
193 many cover sets) can be added to the above list.
195 \subsection{Centralized approaches}
197 The major approach is to divide/organize the sensors into a suitable number of
198 cover sets where each set completely covers an interest region and to activate
199 these cover sets successively. The centralized algorithms always provide nearly
200 or close to optimal solution since the algorithm has global view of the whole
201 network. Note that centralized algorithms have the advantage of requiring very
202 low processing power from the sensor nodes, which usually have limited
203 processing capabilities. The main drawback of this kind of approach is its
204 higher cost in communications, since the node that will make the decision needs
205 information from all the sensor nodes. Exact or heuristic
206 approaches are designed to provide cover sets. Contrary to exact methods,
207 heuristic ones can handle very large and centralized problems. They are
208 proposed to reduce computational overhead such as energy consumption, delay,
209 and generally allow to increase the network lifetime.
211 The first algorithms proposed in the literature consider that the cover sets are
212 disjoint: a sensor node appears in exactly one of the generated cover
213 sets~\cite{abrams2004set,cardei2005improving,Slijepcevic01powerefficient}. In
214 the case of non-disjoint algorithms \cite{pujari2011high}, sensors may
215 participate in more than one cover set. In some cases, this may prolong the
216 lifetime of the network in comparison to the disjoint cover set algorithms, but
217 designing algorithms for non-disjoint cover sets generally induces a higher
218 order of complexity. Moreover, in case of a sensor's failure, non-disjoint
219 scheduling policies are less resilient and reliable because a sensor may be
220 involved in more than one cover sets.
222 In~\cite{yang2014maximum}, the authors have considered a linear programming
223 approach to select the minimum number of working sensor nodes, in order to
224 preserve a maximum coverage and to extend lifetime of the network. Cheng et
225 al.~\cite{cheng2014energy} have defined a heuristic algorithm called Cover Sets
226 Balance (CSB), which chooses a set of active nodes using the tuple (data
227 coverage range, residual energy). Then, they have introduced a new Correlated
228 Node Set Computing (CNSC) algorithm to find the correlated node set for a given
229 node. After that, they proposed a High Residual Energy First (HREF) node
230 selection algorithm to minimize the number of active nodes so as to prolong the
231 network lifetime. Various centralized methods based on column generation
232 approaches have also been
233 proposed~\cite{gentili2013,castano2013column,rossi2012exact,deschinkel2012column}.
234 In~\cite{gentili2013}, authors highlight the trade-off between
235 the network lifetime and the coverage percentage. They show that network
236 lifetime can be hugely improved by decreasing the coverage ratio.
238 \subsection{Distributed approaches}
240 In distributed and localized coverage algorithms, the required computation to
241 schedule the activity of sensor nodes will be done by the cooperation among
242 neighboring nodes. These algorithms may require more computation power for the
243 processing by the cooperating sensor nodes, but they are more scalable for large
244 WSNs. Localized and distributed algorithms generally result in non-disjoint set
247 Many distributed algorithms have been developed to perform the scheduling so as
248 to preserve coverage, see for example
249 \cite{Gallais06,Tian02,Ye03,Zhang05,HeinzelmanCB02, yardibi2010distributed,
250 prasad2007distributed,Misra}. Distributed algorithms typically operate in
251 rounds for a predetermined duration. At the beginning of each round, a sensor
252 exchanges information with its neighbors and makes a decision to either remain
253 turned on or to go to sleep for the round. This decision is basically made on
254 simple greedy criteria like the largest uncovered area
255 \cite{Berman05efficientenergy} or maximum uncovered targets
256 \cite{lu2003coverage}. The Distributed Adaptive Sleep Scheduling Algorithm
257 (DASSA) \cite{yardibi2010distributed} does not require location information of
258 sensors while maintaining connectivity and satisfying a user defined coverage
259 target. In DASSA, nodes use the residual energy levels and feedback from the
260 sink for scheduling the activity of their neighbors. This feedback mechanism
261 reduces the randomness in scheduling that would otherwise occur due to the
262 absence of location information. In \cite{ChinhVu}, the authors have designed a
263 novel distributed heuristic, called Distributed Energy-efficient Scheduling for
264 k-coverage (DESK), which ensures that the energy consumption among the sensors
265 is balanced and the lifetime maximized while the coverage requirement is
266 maintained. This heuristic works in rounds, requires only one-hop neighbor
267 information, and each sensor decides its status (active or sleep) based on the
268 perimeter coverage model from~\cite{Huang:2003:CPW:941350.941367}.
270 The works presented in \cite{Bang, Zhixin, Zhang} focus on coverage-aware,
271 distributed energy-efficient, and distributed clustering methods respectively,
272 which aim at extending the network lifetime, while the coverage is ensured.
273 More recently, Shibo et al. \cite{Shibo} have expressed the coverage problem as
274 a minimum weight submodular set cover problem and proposed a Distributed
275 Truncated Greedy Algorithm (DTGA) to solve it. They take advantage from both
276 temporal and spatial correlations between data sensed by different sensors, and
277 leverage prediction, to improve the lifetime. In \cite{xu2001geography}, Xu et
278 al. have described an algorithm, called Geographical Adaptive Fidelity (GAF),
279 which uses geographic location information to divide the area of interest into
280 fixed square grids. Within each grid, it keeps only one node staying awake to
281 take the responsibility of sensing and communication.
283 Some other approaches (outside the scope of our work) do not consider a
284 synchronized and predetermined time-slot where the sensors are active or not.
285 Indeed, each sensor maintains its own timer and its wake-up time is randomized
286 \cite{Ye03} or regulated \cite{cardei2005maximum} over time.
288 \section{MuDiLCO protocol description}
291 \subsection{Assumptions and primary points}
294 \textcolor{blue}{Assumptions and coverage model are identical to those presented
295 in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}.}
298 We consider a randomly and uniformly deployed network consisting of static
299 wireless sensors. The sensors are deployed in high density to ensure initially
300 a high coverage ratio of the interested area. We assume that all nodes are
301 homogeneous in terms of communication and processing capabilities, and
302 heterogeneous from the point of view of energy provision. Each sensor is
303 supposed to get information on its location either through hardware such as
304 embedded GPS or through location discovery algorithms.
306 To model a sensor node's coverage area, we consider the boolean disk coverage
307 model which is the most widely used sensor coverage model in the
308 literature. Thus, each sensor has a constant sensing range $R_s$ and all space
309 points within the disk centered at the sensor with the radius of the sensing
310 range is said to be covered by this sensor. We also assume that the
311 communication range satisfies $R_c \geq 2R_s$. In fact, Zhang and
312 Zhou~\cite{Zhang05} proved that if the transmission range fulfills the previous
313 hypothesis, a complete coverage of a convex area implies connectivity among the
316 \textcolor{blue}{We consider a scenario where sensors are deployed in high
317 density to ensure initially a high coverage ratio of the interested area. Each
318 sensor has a predefined sensing range $R_s$, an initial energy supply
319 (eventually different from each other) and is supposed to be equipped with
320 module for locating its geographical positions. All space points within the
321 disk centered at the sensor with the radius of the sensing range is said to be
322 covered by this sensor.}
324 \indent Instead of working with the coverage area, we consider for each sensor a
325 set of points called primary points~\cite{idrees2014coverage}. We assume that
326 the sensing disk defined by a sensor is covered if all the primary points of
327 this sensor are covered. By knowing the position of wireless sensor node
328 (centered at the the position $\left(p_x,p_y\right)$) and its sensing range
329 $R_s$, we define up to 25 primary points $X_1$ to $X_{25}$ as described on
330 Figure~\ref{fig1}. The optimal number of primary points is investigated in
331 section~\ref{ch4:sec:04:06}.
333 The coordinates of the primary points are defined as follows:\\
334 %$(p_x,p_y)$ = point center of wireless sensor node\\
336 $X_2=( p_x + R_s * (1), p_y + R_s * (0) )$\\
337 $X_3=( p_x + R_s * (-1), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
338 $X_4=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (1) )$\\
339 $X_5=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (-1 )) $\\
340 $X_6=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
341 $X_7=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
342 $X_8=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
343 $X_9=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
344 $X_{10}= ( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
345 $X_{11}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0))$\\
346 $X_{12}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
347 $X_{13}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
348 $X_{14}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{1}{2})) $\\
349 $X_{15}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{1}{2})) $\\
350 $X_{16}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2})) $\\
351 $X_{17}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2})) $\\
352 $X_{18}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
353 $X_{19}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
354 $X_{20}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{1}{2})) $\\
355 $X_{21}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (-\frac{1}{2})) $\\
356 $X_{22}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2})) $\\
357 $X_{23}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2})) $\\
358 $X_{24}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{- 1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2})) $\\
359 $X_{25}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{1}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{3}}{2})) $.
363 \includegraphics[scale=0.375]{fig26.pdf}
365 \caption{Wireless sensor node represented by up to 25~primary points}
368 \subsection{Background idea}
370 The WSN area of interest is, at first, divided into regular homogeneous
371 subregions using a divide-and-conquer algorithm. Then, our protocol will be
372 executed in a distributed way in each subregion simultaneously to schedule
373 nodes' activities for one sensing period. Sensor nodes are assumed to be
374 deployed almost uniformly and with high density over the region. The regular
375 subdivision is made so that the number of hops between any pairs of sensors
376 inside a subregion is less than or equal to 3.
378 As can be seen in Figure~\ref{fig2}, our protocol works in periods fashion,
379 where each period is divided into 4~phases: Information~Exchange,
380 Leader~Election, Decision, and Sensing. \textcolor{blue}{Compared to protocol
381 DiLCO described in~\cite{idrees2015distributed},} each sensing phase is itself
382 divided into $T$ rounds of equal duration and for each round a set of sensors (a
383 cover set) is responsible for the sensing task. In this way a multiround
384 optimization process is performed during each period after Information~Exchange
385 and Leader~Election phases, in order to produce $T$ cover sets that will take
386 the mission of sensing for $T$
387 rounds. \textcolor{blue}{Algorithm~\ref{alg:MuDiLCO} is executed by each sensor
388 node~$s_j$ (with enough remaining energy) at the beginning of a period.}
390 \centering \includegraphics[width=125mm]{Modelgeneral.pdf} % 70mm
391 \caption{The MuDiLCO protocol scheme executed on each node}
395 \begin{algorithm}[h!]
397 \If{ $RE_j \geq E_{R}$ }{
398 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMMUNICATION}\;
399 \emph{Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in the subregion}\;
400 \emph{Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in the subregion}\;
402 \emph{LeaderID = Leader election}\;
403 \If{$ s_j.ID = LeaderID $}{
404 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMPUTATION}\;
405 \emph{$\left\{\left(X_{1,k},\dots,X_{T,k}\right)\right\}_{k \in J}$ =
406 Execute Integer Program Algorithm($T,J$)}\;
407 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMMUNICATION}\;
408 \emph{Send $ActiveSleep()$ packet to each node $k$ in subregion: a packet \\
409 with vector of activity scheduling $(X_{1,k},\dots,X_{T,k})$}\;
410 \emph{Update $RE_j $}\;
413 \emph{$s_j.status$ = LISTENING}\;
414 \emph{Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader}\;
415 \emph{Update $RE_j $}\;
418 \Else { Exclude $s_j$ from entering in the current sensing phase}
420 \caption{MuDiLCO($s_j$)}
424 \textcolor{blue}{As already described in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}}, two
425 types of packets are used by the proposed protocol:
426 \begin{enumerate}[(a)]
427 \item INFO packet: such a packet will be sent by each sensor node to all the
428 nodes inside a subregion for information exchange.
429 \item Active-Sleep packet: sent by the leader to all the nodes inside a
430 subregion to inform them to remain Active or to go Sleep during the sensing
434 There are five status for each sensor node in the network:
435 \begin{enumerate}[(a)]
436 \item LISTENING: sensor node is waiting for a decision (to be active or not);
437 \item COMPUTATION: sensor node has been elected as leader and applies the
438 optimization process;
439 \item ACTIVE: sensor node is taking part in the monitoring of the area;
440 \item SLEEP: sensor node is turned off to save energy;
441 \item COMMUNICATION: sensor node is transmitting or receiving packet.
444 This protocol minimizes the impact of unexpected node failure (not due to
445 batteries running out of energy), because it works in periods. On the one hand,
446 if a node failure is detected before making the decision, the node will not
447 participate to this phase, and, on the other hand, if the node failure occurs
448 after the decision, the sensing task of the network will be temporarily
449 affected: only during the period of sensing until a new period starts. The
450 duration of the rounds is a predefined parameter. Round duration should be long
451 enough to hide the system control overhead and short enough to minimize the
452 negative effects in case of node failures.
454 The energy consumption and some other constraints can easily be taken into
455 account, since the sensors can update and then exchange their information
456 (including their residual energy) at the beginning of each period. However, the
457 pre-sensing phases (Information Exchange, Leader Election, and Decision) are
458 energy consuming for some nodes, even when they do not join the network to
461 At the beginning of each period, each sensor which has enough remaining energy
462 ($RE_j$) to be alive during at least one round ($E_{R}$ is the amount of energy
463 required to be alive during one round) sends (line 3 of
464 Algorithm~\ref{alg:MuDiLCO}) its position, remaining energy $RE_j$, and the
465 number of neighbors $NBR_j$ to all wireless sensor nodes in its subregion by
466 using an INFO packet (containing information on position coordinates, current
467 remaining energy, sensor node ID, number of its one-hop live neighbors) and then
468 waits for packets sent by other nodes (line 4).
470 After that, each node will have information about all the sensor nodes in the
471 subregion. The nodes in the same subregion will select (line 5) a Wireless
472 Sensor Node Leader (WSNL) based on the received information from all other nodes
473 in the same subregion. The selection criteria are, in order of importance:
474 larger number of neighbors, larger remaining energy, and then in case of
475 equality, larger index. Observations on previous simulations suggest to use the
476 number of one-hop neighbors as the primary criterion to reduce energy
477 consumption due to the communications.
479 %Each WSNL will solve an integer program to select which cover
480 % sets will be activated in the following sensing phase to cover the subregion
481 % to which it belongs. $T$ cover sets will be produced, one for each round. The
482 % WSNL will send an Active-Sleep packet to each sensor in the subregion based on
483 % the algorithm's results, indicating if the sensor should be active or not in
484 % each round of the sensing phase.
485 \subsection{Multiround Optimization model}
488 As shown in Algorithm~\ref{alg:MuDiLCO} at line 8, the leader (WNSL) will
489 execute an optimization algorithm based on an integer program to select the
490 cover sets to be activated in the following sensing phase to cover the subregion
491 to which it belongs. $T$ cover sets will be produced, one for each round. The
492 WSNL will send an Active-Sleep packet to each sensor in the subregion based on
493 the algorithm's results (line 10), indicating if the sensor should be active or
494 not in each round of the sensing phase.
496 The integer program is based on the model proposed by \cite{pedraza2006} with
497 some modifications, where the objective is to find a maximum number of disjoint
498 cover sets. To fulfill this goal, the authors proposed an integer program which
499 forces undercoverage and overcoverage of targets to become minimal at the same
500 time. They use binary variables $x_{jl}$ to indicate if sensor $j$ belongs to
501 cover set $l$. In our model, we consider binary variables $X_{t,j}$ to
502 determine the possibility of activating sensor $j$ during round $t$ of a given
503 sensing phase. We also consider primary points as targets. The set of primary
504 points is denoted by $P$ and the set of sensors by $J$. Only sensors able to be
505 alive during at least one round are involved in the integer program.
506 \textcolor{blue}{Note that the proposed integer program is an extension of that
507 formulated in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}, variables are now indexed in
508 addition with the number of round $t$.}
510 For a primary point $p$, let $\alpha_{j,p}$ denote the indicator function of
511 whether the point $p$ is covered, that is:
513 \alpha_{j,p} = \left \{
515 1 & \mbox{if the primary point $p$ is covered} \\
516 & \mbox{by sensor node $j$}, \\
517 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
521 The number of active sensors that cover the primary point $p$ during
522 round $t$ is equal to $\sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{j,p} * X_{t,j}$ where:
526 1& \mbox{if sensor $j$ is active during round $t$,} \\
527 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
531 We define the Overcoverage variable $\Theta_{t,p}$ as:
533 \Theta_{t,p} = \left \{
535 0 & \mbox{if the primary point $p$}\\
536 & \mbox{is not covered during round $t$,}\\
537 \left( \sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{jp} * X_{t,j} \right)- 1 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
541 More precisely, $\Theta_{t,p}$ represents the number of active sensor nodes
542 minus one that cover the primary point $p$ during round $t$. The
543 Undercoverage variable $U_{t,p}$ of the primary point $p$ during round $t$ is
548 1 &\mbox{if the primary point $p$ is not covered during round $t$,} \\
549 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
554 Our coverage optimization problem can then be formulated as follows:
556 \min \sum_{t=1}^{T} \sum_{p=1}^{|P|} \left(W_{\theta}* \Theta_{t,p} + W_{U} * U_{t,p} \right) \label{eq15}
561 \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
565 \sum_{t=1}^{T} X_{t,j} \leq \floor*{RE_{j}/E_{R}} \hspace{10 mm}\forall j \in J\hspace{6 mm}
570 X_{t,j} \in \lbrace0,1\rbrace, \hspace{10 mm} \forall j \in J, t = 1,\dots,T \label{eq17}
574 U_{t,p} \in \lbrace0,1\rbrace, \hspace{10 mm}\forall p \in P, t = 1,\dots,T \label{eq18}
578 \Theta_{t,p} \geq 0 \hspace{10 mm}\forall p \in P, t = 1,\dots,T \label{eq178}
582 \item $X_{t,j}$: indicates whether or not the sensor $j$ is actively sensing
583 during round $t$ (1 if yes and 0 if not);
584 \item $\Theta_{t,p}$ - {\it overcoverage}: the number of sensors minus one that
585 are covering the primary point $p$ during round $t$;
586 \item $U_{t,p}$ - {\it undercoverage}: indicates whether or not the primary
587 point $p$ is being covered during round $t$ (1 if not covered and 0 if
591 The first group of constraints indicates that some primary point $p$ should be
592 covered by at least one sensor and, if it is not always the case, overcoverage
593 and undercoverage variables help balancing the restriction equations by taking
594 positive values. The constraint given by equation~(\ref{eq144}) guarantees that
595 the sensor has enough energy ($RE_j$ corresponds to its remaining energy) to be
596 alive during the selected rounds knowing that $E_{R}$ is the amount of energy
597 required to be alive during one round.
599 There are two main objectives. First, we limit the overcoverage of primary
600 points in order to activate a minimum number of sensors. Second we prevent the
601 absence of monitoring on some parts of the subregion by minimizing the
602 undercoverage. The weights $W_\theta$ and $W_U$ must be properly chosen so as
603 to guarantee that the maximum number of points are covered during each round.
604 In our simulations, priority is given to the coverage by choosing $W_{U}$ very
605 large compared to $W_{\theta}$.
607 The size of the problem depends on the number of variables and constraints. The
608 number of variables is linked to the number of alive sensors $A \subseteq J$,
609 the number of rounds $T$, and the number of primary points $P$. Thus the
610 integer program contains $A*T$ variables of type $X_{t,j}$, $P*T$ overcoverage
611 variables and $P*T$ undercoverage variables. The number of constraints is equal
612 to $P*T$ (for constraints (\ref{eq16})) $+$ $A$ (for constraints (\ref{eq144})).
615 \subsection{Sensing phase}
617 The sensing phase consists of $T$ rounds. Each sensor node in the subregion will
618 receive an Active-Sleep packet from WSNL, informing it to stay awake or to go to
619 sleep for each round of the sensing phase. Algorithm~\ref{alg:MuDiLCO}, which
620 will be executed by each sensor node~$s_j$ at the beginning of a period,
621 explains how the Active-Sleep packet is obtained.
624 \section{Experimental framework}
627 \subsection{Simulation setup}
629 We conducted a series of simulations to evaluate the efficiency and the
630 relevance of our approach, using the discrete event simulator OMNeT++
631 \cite{varga}. The simulation parameters are summarized in Table~\ref{table3}.
632 Each experiment for a network is run over 25~different random topologies and the
633 results presented hereafter are the average of these 25 runs. We performed
634 simulations for five different densities varying from 50 to 250~nodes deployed
635 over a $50 \times 25~m^2 $ sensing field. More precisely, the deployment is
636 controlled at a coarse scale in order to ensure that the deployed nodes can
637 cover the sensing field with the given sensing range.
640 \caption{Relevant parameters for network initializing.}
644 Parameter & Value \\ [0.5ex]
646 Sensing field size & $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ \\
647 Network size & 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250~nodes \\
648 Initial energy & 500-700~joules \\
649 Sensing time for one round & 60 Minutes \\
650 $E_{R}$ & 36 Joules\\
658 Our protocol is declined into four versions: MuDiLCO-1, MuDiLCO-3, MuDiLCO-5,
659 and MuDiLCO-7, corresponding respectively to $T=1,3,5,7$ ($T$ the number of
660 rounds in one sensing period). Since the time resolution may be prohibitive when
661 the size of the problem increases, a time limit threshold has been fixed when
662 solving large instances. In these cases, the solver returns the best solution
663 found, which is not necessary the optimal one. In practice, we only set time
664 limit values for $T=5$ and $T=7$. In fact, for $T=5$ we limited the time for
665 250~nodes, whereas for $T=7$ it was for the three largest network sizes.
666 Therefore we used the following values (in second): 0.03 for 250~nodes when
667 $T=5$, while for $T=7$ we chose 0.03, 0.06, and 0.08 for respectively 150, 200,
668 and 250~nodes. These time limit thresholds have been set empirically. The basic
669 idea is to consider the average execution time to solve the integer programs to
670 optimality for 100 nodes and then to adjust the time linearly according to the
671 increasing network size. After that, this threshold value is increased if
672 necessary so that the solver is able to deliver a feasible solution within the
673 time limit. In fact, selecting the optimal values for the time limits will be
674 investigated in the future.
676 In the following, we will make comparisons with two other methods. The first
677 method, called DESK and proposed by \cite{ChinhVu}, is a fully distributed
678 coverage algorithm. The second method, called GAF~\cite{xu2001geography},
679 consists in dividing the region into fixed squares. During the decision phase,
680 in each square, one sensor is then chosen to remain active during the sensing
683 Some preliminary experiments were performed to study the choice of the number of
684 subregions which subdivides the sensing field, considering different network
685 sizes. They show that as the number of subregions increases, so does the network
686 lifetime. Moreover, it makes the MuDiLCO protocol more robust against random
687 network disconnection due to node failures. However, too many subdivisions
688 reduce the advantage of the optimization. In fact, there is a balance between
689 the benefit from the optimization and the execution time needed to solve it. In
690 the following we have set the number of subregions to~16 \textcolor{blue}{as
691 recommended in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}}.
693 \subsection{Energy model}
694 \textcolor{blue}{The energy consumption model is detailed
695 in~\cite{raghunathan2002energy}. It is based on the model proposed
696 by~\cite{ChinhVu}. We refer to the sensor node Medusa~II which uses an Atmels
697 AVR ATmega103L microcontroller~\cite{raghunathan2002energy} to use numerical
698 values.} \textcolor{red}{Est-ce qu'il faut en ecrire plus et redonner le
702 \subsection{Energy model}
704 We use an energy consumption model proposed by~\cite{ChinhVu} and based on
705 \cite{raghunathan2002energy} with slight modifications. The energy consumption
706 for sending/receiving the packets is added, whereas the part related to the
707 sensing range is removed because we consider a fixed sensing range.
709 For our energy consumption model, we refer to the sensor node Medusa~II which
710 uses an Atmels AVR ATmega103L microcontroller~\cite{raghunathan2002energy}. The
711 typical architecture of a sensor is composed of four subsystems: the MCU
712 subsystem which is capable of computation, communication subsystem (radio) which
713 is responsible for transmitting/receiving messages, the sensing subsystem that
714 collects data, and the power supply which powers the complete sensor node
715 \cite{raghunathan2002energy}. Each of the first three subsystems can be turned
716 on or off depending on the current status of the sensor. Energy consumption
717 (expressed in milliWatt per second) for the different status of the sensor is
718 summarized in Table~\ref{table4}.
721 \caption{The Energy Consumption Model}
723 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
725 Sensor status & MCU & Radio & Sensing & Power (mW) \\ [0.5ex]
727 LISTENING & on & on & on & 20.05 \\
729 ACTIVE & on & off & on & 9.72 \\
731 SLEEP & off & off & off & 0.02 \\
733 COMPUTATION & on & on & on & 26.83 \\
740 For the sake of simplicity we ignore the energy needed to turn on the radio, to
741 start up the sensor node, to move from one status to another, etc.
742 Thus, when a sensor becomes active (i.e., it has already chosen its status), it
743 can turn its radio off to save battery. MuDiLCO uses two types of packets for
744 communication. The size of the INFO packet and Active-Sleep packet are 112~bits
745 and 24~bits respectively. The value of energy spent to send a 1-bit-content
746 message is obtained by using the equation in ~\cite{raghunathan2002energy} to
747 calculate the energy cost for transmitting messages and we propose the same
748 value for receiving the packets. The energy needed to send or receive a 1-bit
749 packet is equal to 0.2575~mW.
751 The initial energy of each node is randomly set in the interval $[500;700]$. A
752 sensor node will not participate in the next round if its remaining energy is
753 less than $E_{R}=36~\mbox{Joules}$, the minimum energy needed for the node to
754 stay alive during one round. This value has been computed by multiplying the
755 energy consumed in active state (9.72 mW) by the time in second for one round
756 (3600 seconds). According to the interval of initial energy, a sensor may be
757 alive during at most 20 rounds.
762 \textcolor{blue}{To evaluate our approach we consider the performance metrics
763 detailed in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}, which are: Coverage Ratio, Network
764 Lifetime and Energy Consumption. Compared to the previous definitions,
765 formulations of Coverage Ratio and Energy Consumption are enriched with the
770 \item {{\bf Coverage Ratio (CR)}:} the coverage ratio measures how much of the
771 area of a sensor field is covered. In our case, the sensing field is
772 represented as a connected grid of points and we use each grid point as a
773 sample point to compute the coverage. The coverage ratio can be calculated by:
776 \mbox{CR}(\%) = \frac{\mbox{$n^t$}}{\mbox{$N$}} \times 100,
778 where $n^t$ is the number of covered grid points by the active sensors of all
779 subregions during round $t$ in the current sensing phase and $N$ is the total
780 number of grid points in the sensing field of the network. In our simulations $N
781 = 51 \times 26 = 1326$ grid points.
783 \item{{\bf Number of Active Sensors Ratio (ASR)}:} it is important to have as
784 few active nodes as possible in each round, in order to minimize the
785 communication overhead and maximize the network lifetime. The Active Sensors
786 Ratio is defined as follows:
788 \scriptsize \mbox{ASR}(\%) = \frac{\sum\limits_{r=1}^R
789 \mbox{$A_r^t$}}{\mbox{$|J|$}} \times 100,
791 where $A_r^t$ is the number of active sensors in the subregion $r$ during round
792 $t$ in the current sensing phase, $|J|$ is the total number of sensors in the
793 network, and $R$ is the total number of subregions in the network.
795 \item {{\bf Network Lifetime}:} we define the network lifetime as the time until
796 the coverage ratio drops below a predefined threshold. We denote by
797 $Lifetime_{95}$ (respectively $Lifetime_{50}$) the amount of time during which
798 the network can satisfy an area coverage greater than $95\%$ (respectively
799 $50\%$). We assume that the network is alive until all nodes have been drained
800 of their energy or the sensor network becomes disconnected. Network
801 connectivity is important because an active sensor node without connectivity
802 towards a base station cannot transmit information on an event in the area
805 \item {{\bf Energy Consumption (EC)}:} the average energy consumption can be
806 seen as the total energy consumed by the sensors during the $Lifetime_{95}$ or
807 $Lifetime_{50}$ divided by the number of rounds. EC can be computed as
812 \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},
815 where $M$ is the number of periods and $T_m$ the number of rounds in a
816 period~$m$, both during $Lifetime_{95}$ or $Lifetime_{50}$. The total energy
817 consumed by the sensors (EC) comes through taking into consideration four main
818 energy factors. The first one , denoted $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{com}}_m$,
819 represents the energy consumption spent by all the nodes for wireless
820 communications during period $m$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{list}}_m$, the next
821 factor, corresponds to the energy consumed by the sensors in LISTENING status
822 before receiving the decision to go active or sleep in period $m$.
823 $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{comp}}_m$ refers to the energy needed by all the leader
824 nodes to solve the integer program during a period. Finally, $E^a_t$ and $E^s_t$
825 indicate the energy consumed by the whole network in round $t$.
827 %\item {Network Lifetime:} we have defined the network lifetime as the time until all
828 %nodes have been drained of their energy or each sensor network monitoring an area has become disconnected.
834 \item {{\bf Execution Time}:} a sensor node has limited energy resources and
835 computing power, therefore it is important that the proposed algorithm has the
836 shortest possible execution time. The energy of a sensor node must be mainly
837 used for the sensing phase, not for the pre-sensing ones.
839 \item {{\bf Stopped simulation runs}:} a simulation ends when the sensor network
840 becomes disconnected (some nodes are dead and are not able to send information
841 to the base station). We report the number of simulations that are stopped due
842 to network disconnections and for which round it occurs.
847 \section{Experimental results and analysis}
850 \subsection{Performance analysis for different number of primary points}
851 \label{ch4:sec:04:06}
853 In this section, we study the performance of MuDiLCO-1 approach (with only one
854 round as in~\cite{idrees2015distributed}) for different numbers of primary
855 points. The objective of this comparison is to select the suitable number of
856 primary points to be used by a MuDiLCO protocol. In this comparison, MuDiLCO-1
857 protocol is used with five primary point models, each model corresponding to a
858 number of primary points, which are called Model-5 (it uses 5 primary points),
859 Model-9, Model-13, Model-17, and Model-21. \textcolor{blue}{Note that results
860 presented in~\cite{idrees2015distributed} correspond to Model-13 (13 primary
863 \subsubsection{Coverage ratio}
865 Figure~\ref{Figures/ch4/R2/CR} shows the average coverage ratio for 150 deployed
866 nodes. As can be seen, at the beginning the models which use a larger number of
867 primary points provide slightly better coverage ratios, but latter they are the
868 worst. Moreover, when the number of periods increases, the coverage ratio
869 produced by all models decrease due to dead nodes. However, Model-5 is the one
870 with the slowest decrease due to lower numbers of active sensors in the earlier
871 periods. Overall this model is slightly more efficient than the other ones,
872 because it offers a good coverage ratio for a larger number of periods.
876 \includegraphics[scale=0.5] {R2/CR.pdf}
877 \caption{Coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes}
878 \label{Figures/ch4/R2/CR}
881 \subsubsection{Network lifetime}
883 Finally, we study the effect of increasing the number of primary points on the
884 lifetime of the network. As highlighted by Figures~\ref{Figures/ch4/R2/LT}(a)
885 and \ref{Figures/ch4/R2/LT}(b), the network lifetime obviously increases when
886 the size of the network increases, with Model-5 which leads to the largest
887 lifetime improvement.
892 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{R2/LT95.pdf}\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(a) \\
894 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{R2/LT50.pdf}\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(b)
896 \caption{Network lifetime for (a) $Lifetime_{95}$ and (b) $Lifetime_{50}$}
897 \label{Figures/ch4/R2/LT}
900 Comparison shows that Model-5, which uses less number of primary points, is the
901 best one because it is less energy consuming during the network lifetime. It is
902 also the better one from the point of view of coverage ratio, as stated
903 before. Therefore, we have chosen the model with five primary points for all the
904 experiments presented thereafter.
906 \subsection{Coverage ratio}
908 Figure~\ref{fig3} shows the average coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes. We
909 can notice that for the first 30~rounds both DESK and GAF provide a coverage
910 which is a little bit better than the one of MuDiLCO. This is due to the fact
911 that, in comparison with MuDiLCO which uses optimization to put in SLEEP status
912 redundant sensors, more sensor nodes remain active with DESK and GAF. As a
913 consequence, when the number of rounds increases, a larger number of node
914 failures can be observed in DESK and GAF, resulting in a faster decrease of the
915 coverage ratio. Furthermore, our protocol allows to maintain a coverage ratio
916 greater than 50\% for far more rounds. Overall, the proposed sensor activity
917 scheduling based on optimization in MuDiLCO maintains higher coverage ratios of
918 the area of interest for a larger number of rounds. It also means that MuDiLCO
919 saves more energy, with less dead nodes, at most for several rounds, and thus
920 should extend the network lifetime. MuDiLCO-7 seems to have most of the time
921 the best coverage ratio up to round~80, after that MuDiLCO-5 is slightly better.
925 \includegraphics[scale=0.5] {F/CR.pdf}
926 \caption{Average coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes}
930 \subsection{Active sensors ratio}
932 It is crucial to have as few active nodes as possible in each round, in order to
933 minimize the communication overhead and maximize the network
934 lifetime. Figure~\ref{fig4} presents the active sensor ratio for 150 deployed
935 nodes all along the network lifetime. It appears that up to round thirteen, DESK
936 and GAF have respectively 37.6\% and 44.8\% of nodes in ACTIVE status, whereas
937 MuDiLCO clearly outperforms them with only 24.8\% of active nodes. Obviously,
938 in that case DESK and GAF have less active nodes, since they have activated many
939 nodes at the beginning. Anyway, MuDiLCO activates the available nodes in a more
944 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/ASR.pdf}
945 \caption{Active sensors ratio for 150 deployed nodes}
949 \subsection{Stopped simulation runs}
951 A simulation ends when the sensor network becomes disconnected (some nodes are
952 dead and are not able to send information to the base station). We report the
953 number of simulations that are stopped due to network disconnections and for
954 which round it occurs. Figure~\ref{fig6} reports the cumulative percentage of
955 stopped simulations runs per round for 150 deployed nodes. This figure gives
956 the break point for each method. DESK stops first, after approximately
957 45~rounds, because it consumes the more energy by turning on a large number of
958 redundant nodes during the sensing phase. GAF stops secondly for the same reason
959 than DESK. Let us emphasize that the simulation continues as long as a network
960 in a subregion is still connected.
964 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/SR.pdf}
965 \caption{Cumulative percentage of stopped simulation runs for 150 deployed nodes}
969 \subsection{Energy consumption} \label{subsec:EC}
971 We measure the energy consumed by the sensors during the communication,
972 listening, computation, active, and sleep status for different network densities
973 and compare it with the two other methods. Figures~\ref{fig7}(a)
974 and~\ref{fig7}(b) illustrate the energy consumption, considering different
975 network sizes, for $Lifetime_{95}$ and $Lifetime_{50}$.
980 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/EC95.pdf}} & (a) \\
982 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/EC50.pdf}} & (b)
984 \caption{Energy consumption for (a) $Lifetime_{95}$ and
989 The results show that MuDiLCO is the most competitive from the energy
990 consumption point of view. The other approaches have a high energy consumption
991 due to activating a larger number of redundant nodes as well as the energy
992 consumed during the different status of the sensor node.
994 Energy consumption increases with the size of the networks and the number of
995 rounds. The curve Unlimited-MuDiLCO-7 shows that energy consumption due to the
996 time spent to optimally solve the integer program increases drastically with the
997 size of the network. When the resolution time is limited for large network
998 sizes, the energy consumption remains of the same order whatever the MuDiLCO
999 version. As can be seen with MuDiLCO-7.
1001 \subsection{Execution time}
1004 We observe the impact of the network size and of the number of rounds on the
1005 computation time. Figure~\ref{fig77} gives the average execution times in
1006 seconds (needed to solve the optimization problem) for different values of
1007 $T$. The modeling language for Mathematical Programming (AMPL)~\cite{AMPL} is
1008 employed to generate the Mixed Integer Linear Program instance in a standard
1009 format, which is then read and solved by the optimization solver GLPK (GNU
1010 linear Programming Kit available in the public domain) \cite{glpk} through a
1011 Branch-and-Bound method. The original execution time is computed on a laptop
1012 DELL with Intel Core~i3~2370~M (2.4 GHz) processor (2 cores) and the MIPS
1013 (Million Instructions Per Second) rate equal to 35330. To be consistent with the
1014 use of a sensor node with Atmels AVR ATmega103L microcontroller (6 MHz) and a
1015 MIPS rate equal to 6 to run the optimization resolution, this time is multiplied
1016 by 2944.2 $\left( \frac{35330}{2} \times \frac{1}{6} \right)$ and reported on
1017 Figure~\ref{fig77} for different network sizes.
1021 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{F/T.pdf}
1022 \caption{Execution Time (in seconds)}
1026 As expected, the execution time increases with the number of rounds $T$ taken
1027 into account to schedule the sensing phase. Obviously, the number of variables
1028 and constraints of the integer program increases with $T$, as explained in
1029 section~\ref{mom}, the times obtained for $T=1,3$ or $5$ seem bearable. But for
1030 $T=7$, without any limitation of the time, they become quickly unsuitable for a
1031 sensor node, especially when the sensor network size increases as demonstrated
1032 by Unlimited-MuDiLCO-7. Notice that for 250 nodes, we also limited the
1033 execution time for $T=5$, otherwise the execution time, denoted by
1034 Unlimited-MuDiLCO-5, is also above MuDiLCO-7. On the one hand, a large value
1035 for $T$ permits to reduce the energy-overhead due to the three pre-sensing
1036 phases, on the other hand a leader node may waste a considerable amount of
1037 energy to solve the optimization problem. Thus, limiting the time resolution for
1038 large instances allows to reduce the energy consumption without any impact on
1039 the coverage quality.
1041 \subsection{Network lifetime}
1043 The next two figures, Figures~\ref{fig8}(a) and \ref{fig8}(b), illustrate the
1044 network lifetime for different network sizes, respectively for $Lifetime_{95}$
1045 and $Lifetime_{50}$. Both figures show that the network lifetime increases
1046 together with the number of sensor nodes, whatever the protocol, thanks to the
1047 node density which results in more and more redundant nodes that can be
1048 deactivated and thus save energy. Compared to the other approaches, our MuDiLCO
1049 protocol maximizes the lifetime of the network. In particular the gain in
1050 lifetime for a coverage over 95\%, and a network of 250~nodes, is greater than
1051 43\% when switching from GAF to MuDiLCO-5.
1052 %The lower performance that can be observed for MuDiLCO-7 in case
1053 %of $Lifetime_{95}$ with large wireless sensor networks results from the
1054 %difficulty of the optimization problem to be solved by the integer program.
1055 %This point was already noticed in subsection \ref{subsec:EC} devoted to the
1056 %energy consumption, since network lifetime and energy consumption are directly
1058 Overall, it clearly appears that computing a scheduling for several rounds is
1059 possible and relevant, providing that the execution time to solve the
1060 optimization problem for large instances is limited. Notice that rather than
1061 limiting the execution time, similar results might be obtained by replacing the
1062 computation of the exact solution with the finding of a suboptimal one using a
1063 heuristic approach. For our simulation setup and considering the different
1064 metrics, MuDiLCO-5 seems to be the best suited method compared to MuDiLCO-7.
1069 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5125]{F/LT95.pdf}} & (a) \\
1071 \parbox{9.5cm}{\includegraphics[scale=0.5125]{F/LT50.pdf}} & (b)
1073 \caption{Network lifetime for (a) $Lifetime_{95}$ and
1074 (b) $Lifetime_{50}$}
1078 \section{Conclusion and future works}
1079 \label{sec:conclusion}
1081 We have addressed the problem of the coverage and of the lifetime optimization
1082 in wireless sensor networks. This is a key issue as sensor nodes have limited
1083 resources in terms of memory, energy, and computational power. To cope with this
1084 problem, the field of sensing is divided into smaller subregions using the
1085 concept of divide-and-conquer method, and then we propose a protocol which
1086 optimizes coverage and lifetime performances in each subregion. Our protocol,
1087 called MuDiLCO (Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization) combines
1088 two efficient techniques: network leader election and sensor activity
1089 scheduling. The activity scheduling in each subregion works in periods, where
1090 each period consists of four phases: (i) Information Exchange, (ii) Leader
1091 Election, (iii) Decision Phase to plan the activity of the sensors over $T$
1092 rounds, (iv) Sensing Phase itself divided into $T$ rounds.
1094 Simulations results show the relevance of the proposed protocol in terms of
1095 lifetime, coverage ratio, active sensors ratio, energy consumption, execution
1096 time. Indeed, when dealing with large wireless sensor networks, a distributed
1097 approach, like the one we propose, allows to reduce the difficulty of a single
1098 global optimization problem by partitioning it in many smaller problems, one per
1099 subregion, that can be solved more easily. Furthermore, results also show that
1100 to plan the activity of sensors for large network sizes, an approach to obtain a
1101 near optimal solution is needed. Indeed, an exact resolution of the resulting
1102 optimization problem leads to prohibitive computation times and thus to an
1103 excessive energy consumption.
1105 %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
1106 %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.
1107 % use section* for acknowledgement
1109 \section*{Acknowledgment}
1110 This work is partially funded by the Labex ACTION program (contract
1111 ANR-11-LABX-01-01). Ali Kadhum IDREES would like to gratefully acknowledge the
1112 University of Babylon - Iraq for the financial support and Campus France (The
1113 French national agency for the promotion of higher education, international
1114 student services, and international mobility) for the support received when he
1115 was Ph.D. student in France.
1116 %, and the University ofFranche-Comt\'e - France for all the support in France.
1127 %% The Appendices part is started with the command \appendix;
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