2 % v4.0 released April 2013
5 %\usepackage[linesnumbered,ruled,vlined,commentsnumbered]{algorithm2e}
6 %\renewcommand{\algorithmcfname}{ALGORITHM}
7 \usepackage{indentfirst}
9 \usepackage[algo2e,ruled,vlined]{algorithm2e}
12 %\jvol{00} \jnum{00} \jyear{2013} \jmonth{April}
16 \title{{\itshape Perimeter-based Coverage Optimization \\
17 to Improve Lifetime in Wireless Sensor Networks}}
19 \author{Ali Kadhum Idrees$^{a,b}$, Karine Deschinkel$^{a}$$^{\ast}$\thanks{$^\ast$Corresponding author. Email: karine.deschinkel@univ-fcomte.fr}, Michel Salomon$^{a}$, and Rapha\"el Couturier $^{a}$
20 $^{a}${\em{FEMTO-ST Institute, UMR 6174 CNRS, \\
21 University Bourgogne Franche-Comt\'e, Belfort, France}} \\
22 $^{b}${\em{Department of Computer Science, University of Babylon, Babylon, Iraq}}
28 The most important problem in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is to optimize the
29 use of its limited energy provision, so that it can fulfill its monitoring task
30 as long as possible. Among known available approaches that can be used to
31 improve power management, lifetime coverage optimization provides activity
32 scheduling which ensures sensing coverage while minimizing the energy cost. We
33 propose such an approach called Perimeter-based Coverage Optimization protocol
34 (PeCO). It is a hybrid of centralized and distributed methods: the region of
35 interest is first subdivided into subregions and the protocol is then
36 distributed among sensor nodes in each subregion. The novelty of our approach
37 lies essentially in the formulation of a new mathematical optimization model
38 based on the perimeter coverage level to schedule sensors' activities.
39 Extensive simulation experiments demonstrate that PeCO can offer longer lifetime
40 coverage for WSNs compared to other protocols.
43 Wireless Sensor Networks, Area Coverage, Energy efficiency, Optimization, Scheduling.
48 \section{Introduction}
49 \label{sec:introduction}
51 The continuous progress in Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and wireless
52 communication hardware has given rise to the opportunity of using large networks
53 of tiny sensors, called Wireless Sensor Networks
54 (WSN)~\citep{akyildiz2002wireless,puccinelli2005wireless}, to fulfill monitoring
55 tasks. A WSN consists of small low-powered sensors working together by
56 communicating with one another through multi-hop radio communications. Each node
57 can send the data it collects in its environment, thanks to its sensor, to the
58 user by means of sink nodes. The features of a WSN makes it suitable for a wide
59 range of applications in areas such as business, environment, health, industry,
60 military, and so on~\citep{yick2008wireless}. Typically, a sensor node contains
61 three main components~\citep{anastasi2009energy}: a sensing unit able to measure
62 physical, chemical, or biological phenomena observed in the environment; a
63 processing unit which will process and store the collected measurements; a radio
64 communication unit for data transmission and reception.
66 The energy needed by an active sensor node to perform sensing, processing, and
67 communication is provided by a power supply which is a battery. This battery has
68 a limited energy provision and it may be unsuitable or impossible to replace or
69 recharge in most applications. Therefore it is necessary to deploy WSN with high
70 density in order to increase reliability and to exploit node redundancy thanks
71 to energy-efficient activity scheduling approaches. Indeed, the overlap of
72 sensing areas can be exploited to schedule alternatively some sensors in a low
73 power sleep mode and thus save energy. Overall, the main question that must be
74 answered is: how is it possible to extend the lifetime coverage of a WSN as long
75 as possible while ensuring a high level of coverage? These past few years many
76 energy-efficient mechanisms have been suggested to retain energy and extend the
77 lifetime of the WSNs~\citep{rault2014energy}.
79 This paper makes the following contributions :
81 \item A framework is devised to schedule nodes to be activated alternatively
82 such that the network lifetime is prolonged while ensuring that a certain
83 level of coverage is preserved. A key idea in the proposed framework is to
84 exploit spatial and temporal subdivision. On the one hand, the area of
85 interest is divided into several smaller subregions and, on the other hand,
86 the time line is divided into periods of equal length. In each subregion the
87 sensor nodes will cooperatively choose a leader which will schedule nodes'
88 activities, and this grouping of sensors is similar to typical cluster
90 \item A new mathematical optimization model is proposed. Instead of trying to
91 cover a set of specified points/targets as in most of the methods proposed in
92 the literature, we formulate a mixed-integer program based on the perimeter
93 coverage of each sensor. The model involves integer variables to capture the
94 deviations between the actual level of coverage and the required level.
95 Hence, an optimal schedule will be obtained by minimizing a weighted sum of
97 \item Extensive simulation experiments are conducted using the discrete event
98 simulator OMNeT++, to demonstrate the efficiency of our protocol. We have
99 compared the PeCO protocol to two approaches found in the literature:
100 DESK~\citep{ChinhVu} and GAF~\citep{xu2001geography}, and also to our previous
101 protocol DiLCO published in~\citep{Idrees2}. DiLCO uses the same framework as
102 PeCO but is based on another optimization model for sensor scheduling.
105 The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section some related
106 work in the field is reviewed. Section~\ref{sec:The PeCO Protocol Description}
107 is devoted to the PeCO protocol description and Section~\ref{cp} focuses on the
108 coverage model formulation which is used to schedule the activation of sensor
109 nodes. Section~\ref{sec:Simulation Results and Analysis} presents simulations
110 results and discusses the comparison with other approaches. Finally, concluding
111 remarks are drawn and some suggestions are given for future works in
112 Section~\ref{sec:Conclusion and Future Works}.
114 \section{Related Literature}
115 \label{sec:Literature Review}
117 This section summarizes some related works regarding the coverage problem and
118 presents specific aspects of the PeCO protocol common with other literature
121 The most discussed coverage problems in literature can be classified in three
122 categories~\citep{li2013survey} according to their respective monitoring
123 objective. Hence, area coverage \citep{Misra} means that every point inside a
124 fixed area must be monitored, while target coverage~\citep{yang2014novel} refers
125 to the objective of coverage for a finite number of discrete points called
126 targets, and barrier coverage~\citep{HeShibo,kim2013maximum} focuses on
127 preventing intruders from entering into the region of interest. In
128 \citep{Deng2012} authors transform the area coverage problem into the target
129 coverage one, taking into account the intersection points among disks of sensors
130 nodes or between disks of sensor nodes and boundaries. In
131 \citep{huang2005coverage} authors prove that if the perimeters of the sensors
132 are sufficiently covered it will be the case for the whole area. They provide an
133 algorithm in $O(nd~log~d)$ time to compute the perimeter-coverage of each
134 sensor. $d$ denotes the maximum number of sensors that are neighbors to a
135 sensor, and $n$ is the total number of sensors in the network. {\it In PeCO
136 protocol, instead of determining the level of coverage of a set of discrete
137 points, our optimization model is based on checking the perimeter-coverage of
138 each sensor to activate a minimal number of sensors.}
140 The major approach to extend network lifetime while preserving coverage is to
141 divide/organize the sensors into a suitable number of set covers (disjoint or
142 non-disjoint) \citep{wang2011coverage}, where each set completely covers a
143 region of interest, and to successively activate these set covers. The network
144 activity can be planned in advance and scheduled for the entire network lifetime
145 or organized in periods, and the set of active sensor nodes decided at the
146 beginning of each period \citep{ling2009energy}. In fact, many authors propose
147 algorithms working in such a periodic fashion
148 \citep{chin2007,yan2008design,pc10}. Active node selection is determined based
149 on the problem requirements (e.g. area monitoring, connectivity, or power
150 efficiency). For instance, \citet{jaggi2006} address the problem of maximizing
151 the lifetime by dividing sensors into the maximum number of disjoint subsets
152 such that each subset can ensure both coverage and connectivity. A greedy
153 algorithm is applied once to solve this problem and the computed sets are
154 activated in succession to achieve the desired network lifetime. {\it Motivated
155 by these works, PeCO protocol works in periods, where each period contains a
156 preliminary phase for information exchange and decisions, followed by a
157 sensing phase where one cover set is in charge of the sensing task.}
159 Various centralized and distributed approaches, or even a mixing of these two
160 concepts, have been proposed to extend the network lifetime
161 \citep{zhou2009variable}. In distributed
162 algorithms~\citep{ChinhVu,qu2013distributed,yangnovel} each sensor decides of
163 its own activity scheduling after an information exchange with its neighbors.
164 The main interest of such an approach is to avoid long range communications and
165 thus to reduce the energy dedicated to the communications. Unfortunately, since
166 each node has information on its immediate neighbors only (usually the one-hop
167 ones), it may make a bad decision leading to a global suboptimal solution.
168 Conversely, centralized
169 algorithms~\citep{cardei2005improving,zorbas2010solving,pujari2011high} always
170 provide nearly optimal solutions since the algorithm has a global view of the
171 whole network. The disadvantage of a centralized method is obviously its high
172 cost in communications needed to transmit to a single node, the base station
173 which will globally schedule nodes' activities, data from all the other sensor
174 nodes in the area. The price in communications can be huge since long range
175 communications will be needed. In fact the larger the WSN, the higher the
176 communication energy cost. {\it In order to be suitable for large-scale
177 networks, in the PeCO protocol the area of interest is divided into several
178 smaller subregions, and in each one, a node called the leader is in charge of
179 selecting the active sensors for the current period. Thus the PeCO protocol
180 is scalable and a globally distributed method, whereas it is centralized in
183 Various coverage scheduling algorithms have been developed these past few years.
184 Many of them, dealing with the maximization of the number of cover sets, are
185 heuristics. These heuristics involve the construction of a cover set by
186 including in priority the sensor nodes which cover critical targets, that is to
187 say targets that are covered by the smallest number of sensors
188 \citep{berman04,zorbas2010solving}. Other approaches are based on mathematical
190 formulations~\citep{cardei2005energy,5714480,pujari2011high,Yang2014} and
191 dedicated techniques (solving with a branch-and-bound algorithm available in
192 optimization solver). The problem is formulated as an optimization problem
193 (maximization of the lifetime or number of cover sets) under target coverage and
194 energy constraints. Column generation techniques, well-known and widely
195 practiced techniques for solving linear programs with too many variables, have
197 used~\citep{castano2013column,doi:10.1080/0305215X.2012.687732,deschinkel2012column}.
198 {\it In the PeCO protocol, each leader, in charge of a subregion, solves an
199 integer program which has a twofold objective: minimizing the overcoverage and
200 the undercoverage of the perimeter of each sensor.}
202 The authors in \citep{Idrees2} propose a Distributed Lifetime Coverage
203 Optimization (DiLCO) protocol, which maintains the coverage and improves the
204 lifetime in WSNs. It is an improved version of a research work presented
205 in~\citep{idrees2014coverage}. First, the area of interest is partitioned into
206 subregions using a divide-and-conquer method. The DiLCO protocol is then
207 distributed on the sensor nodes in each subregion in a second step. Hence this
208 protocol combines two techniques: a leader election in each subregion, followed
209 by an optimization-based node activity scheduling performed by each elected
210 leader. The proposed DiLCO protocol is a periodic protocol where each period is
211 decomposed into 4 phases: information exchange, leader election, decision, and
212 sensing. The simulations show that DiLCO is able to increase the WSN lifetime
213 and provides improved coverage performance. {\it In the PeCO protocol, a new
214 mathematical optimization model is proposed. Instead of trying to cover a set
215 of specified points/targets as in the DiLCO protocol, we formulate an integer
216 program based on the perimeter coverage of each sensor. The model involves
217 integer variables to capture the deviations between the actual level of
218 coverage and the required level. The idea is that an optimal scheduling will
219 be obtained by minimizing a weighted sum of these deviations.}
221 \section{ The P{\scshape e}CO Protocol Description}
222 \label{sec:The PeCO Protocol Description}
224 %In this section, the Perimeter-based Coverage
225 %Optimization protocol is decribed in details. First we present the assumptions we made and the models
226 %we considered (in particular the perimeter coverage one), second we describe the
227 %background idea of our protocol, and third we give the outline of the algorithm
228 %executed by each node.
231 \subsection{Assumptions and Models}
234 A WSN consisting of $J$ stationary sensor nodes randomly and uniformly
235 distributed in a bounded sensor field is considered. The wireless sensors are
236 deployed in high density to ensure initially a high coverage ratio of the area
237 of interest. All the sensor nodes are supposed to be homogeneous in terms of
238 communication, sensing, and processing capabilities and heterogeneous from the
239 energy provision point of view. The location information is available to a
240 sensor node either through hardware such as embedded GPS or location discovery
241 algorithms. A Boolean disk coverage model, which is the most widely used sensor
242 coverage model in the literature, is considered and all sensor nodes have a
243 constant sensing range $R_s$. Thus, all the space points within a disk centered
244 at a sensor with a radius equal to the sensing range are said to be covered by
245 this sensor. We also assume that the communication range $R_c$ satisfies $R_c
246 \geq 2 \cdot R_s$. In fact, \citet{Zhang05} proved that if the transmission
247 range fulfills the previous hypothesis, the complete coverage of a convex area
248 implies connectivity among active nodes.
250 The PeCO protocol uses the same perimeter-coverage model as
251 \citet{huang2005coverage}. It can be expressed as follows: a sensor is said to
252 be perimeter covered if all the points on its perimeter are covered by at least
253 one sensor other than itself. Authors \citet{huang2005coverage} proved that a
254 network area is $k$-covered (every point in the area is covered by at least
255 $k$~sensors) if and only if each sensor in the network is $k$-perimeter-covered
256 (perimeter covered by at least $k$ sensors).
258 Figure~\ref{figure1}(a) shows the coverage of sensor node~$0$. On this figure,
259 sensor~$0$ has nine neighbors and we have reported on its perimeter (the
260 perimeter of the disk covered by the sensor) for each neighbor the two points
261 resulting from the intersection of the two sensing areas. These points are
262 denoted for neighbor~$i$ by $iL$ and $iR$, respectively for left and right from
263 a neighboring point of view. The resulting couples of intersection points
264 subdivide the perimeter of sensor~$0$ into portions called arcs.
268 \begin{tabular}{@{}cr@{}}
269 \includegraphics[width=75mm]{figure1a.eps} & \raisebox{3.25cm}{(a)} \\
270 \includegraphics[width=75mm]{figure1b.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(b)}
272 \caption{(a) Perimeter coverage of sensor node 0 and (b) finding the arc of
273 $u$'s perimeter covered by $v$.}
277 Figure~\ref{figure1}(b) describes the geometric information used to find the
278 locations of the left and right points of an arc on the perimeter of a sensor
279 node~$u$ covered by a sensor node~$v$. Node~$v$ is supposed to be located on the
280 west side of sensor~$u$, with the following respective coordinates in the
281 sensing area~: $(v_x,v_y)$ and $(u_x,u_y)$. From the previous coordinates the
282 euclidean distance between nodes~$u$ and $v$ is computed as follows:
284 Dist(u,v)=\sqrt{(u_x - v_x)^2 + (u_y-v_y)^2},
286 while the angle~$\alpha$ is obtained through the formula:
288 \alpha = \arccos \left(\frac{Dist(u,v)}{2R_s} \right).
290 The arc on the perimeter of~$u$ defined by the angular interval $[\pi -
291 \alpha,\pi + \alpha]$ is then said to be perimeter-covered by sensor~$v$.
293 Every couple of intersection points is placed on the angular interval $[0,2\pi)$
294 in a counterclockwise manner, leading to a partitioning of the interval.
295 Figure~\ref{figure1}(a) illustrates the arcs for the nine neighbors of
296 sensor $0$ and Table~\ref{my-label} gives the position of the corresponding arcs
297 in the interval $[0,2\pi)$. More precisely, the points are
298 ordered according to the measures of the angles defined by their respective
299 positions. The intersection points are then visited one after another, starting
300 from the first intersection point after point~zero, and the maximum level of
301 coverage is determined for each interval defined by two successive points. The
302 maximum level of coverage is equal to the number of overlapping arcs. For
303 example, between~$5L$ and~$6L$ the maximum level of coverage is equal to $3$
304 (the value is highlighted in yellow at the bottom of Figure~\ref{figure2}), which
305 means that at most 2~neighbors can cover the perimeter in addition to node $0$.
306 Table~\ref{my-label} summarizes for each coverage interval the maximum level of
307 coverage and the sensor nodes covering the perimeter. The example discussed
308 above is thus given by the sixth line of the table.
312 \includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{figure2.eps}
313 \caption{Maximum coverage levels for perimeter of sensor node $0$.}
318 \tbl{Coverage intervals and contributing sensors for node 0 \label{my-label}}
319 {\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
321 \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Left \\ point \\ angle~$\alpha$ \end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Interval \\ left \\ point\end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Interval \\ right \\ point\end{tabular} & \begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Maximum \\ coverage\\ level\end{tabular} & \multicolumn{5}{c|}{\begin{tabular}[c]{@{}c@{}}Set of sensors\\ involved \\ in coverage interval\end{tabular}} \\ \hline
322 0.0291 & 1L & 2L & 4 & 0 & 1 & 3 & 4 & \\ \hline
323 0.104 & 2L & 3R & 5 & 0 & 1 & 3 & 4 & 2 \\ \hline
324 0.3168 & 3R & 4R & 4 & 0 & 1 & 4 & 2 & \\ \hline
325 0.6752 & 4R & 1R & 3 & 0 & 1 & 2 & & \\ \hline
326 1.8127 & 1R & 5L & 2 & 0 & 2 & & & \\ \hline
327 1.9228 & 5L & 6L & 3 & 0 & 2 & 5 & & \\ \hline
328 2.3959 & 6L & 2R & 4 & 0 & 2 & 5 & 6 & \\ \hline
329 2.4258 & 2R & 7L & 3 & 0 & 5 & 6 & & \\ \hline
330 2.7868 & 7L & 8L & 4 & 0 & 5 & 6 & 7 & \\ \hline
331 2.8358 & 8L & 5R & 5 & 0 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\ \hline
332 2.9184 & 5R & 7R & 4 & 0 & 6 & 7 & 8 & \\ \hline
333 3.3301 & 7R & 9R & 3 & 0 & 6 & 8 & & \\ \hline
334 3.9464 & 9R & 6R & 4 & 0 & 6 & 8 & 9 & \\ \hline
335 4.767 & 6R & 3L & 3 & 0 & 8 & 9 & & \\ \hline
336 4.8425 & 3L & 8R & 4 & 0 & 3 & 8 & 9 & \\ \hline
337 4.9072 & 8R & 4L & 3 & 0 & 3 & 9 & & \\ \hline
338 5.3804 & 4L & 9R & 4 & 0 & 3 & 4 & 9 & \\ \hline
339 5.9157 & 9R & 1L & 3 & 0 & 3 & 4 & & \\ \hline
345 In the PeCO protocol, the scheduling of the sensor nodes' activities is
346 formulated with a mixed-integer program based on coverage
347 intervals~\citep{doi:10.1155/2010/926075}. The formulation of the coverage
348 optimization problem is detailed in~Section~\ref{cp}. Note that when a sensor
349 node has a part of its sensing range outside the WSN sensing field, as in
350 Figure~\ref{figure3}, the maximum coverage level for this arc is set to $\infty$
351 and the corresponding interval will not be taken into account by the
352 optimization algorithm.
357 \includegraphics[width=57.5mm]{figure3.eps}
358 \caption{Sensing range outside the WSN's area of interest.}
364 \subsection{Main Idea}
366 The WSN area of interest is, in a first step, divided into regular homogeneous
367 subregions using a divide-and-conquer algorithm. In a second step our protocol
368 will be executed in a distributed way in each subregion simultaneously to
369 schedule nodes' activities for one sensing period. Sensor nodes are assumed to
370 be deployed almost uniformly over the region. The regular subdivision is made
371 such that the number of hops between any pairs of sensors inside a subregion is
372 less than or equal to 3.
374 As shown in Figure~\ref{figure4}, node activity scheduling is produced by the
375 proposed protocol in a periodic manner. Each period is divided into 4 stages:
376 Information (INFO) Exchange, Leader Election, Decision (the result of an
377 optimization problem), and Sensing. For each period there is exactly one set
378 cover responsible for the sensing task. Protocols based on a periodic scheme,
379 like PeCO, are more robust against an unexpected node failure. On the one hand,
380 if a node failure is discovered before taking the decision, the corresponding
381 sensor node will not be considered by the optimization algorithm. On the other
382 hand, if the sensor failure happens after the decision, the sensing task of the
383 network will be temporarily affected: only during the period of sensing until a
384 new period starts, since a new set cover will take charge of the sensing task in
385 the next period. The energy consumption and some other constraints can easily be
386 taken into account since the sensors can update and then exchange their
387 information (including their residual energy) at the beginning of each period.
388 However, the pre-sensing phases (INFO Exchange, Leader Election, and Decision)
389 are energy consuming, even for nodes that will not join the set cover to monitor
390 the area. Sensing period duration is adapted according to the QoS requirements
395 \includegraphics[width=80mm]{figure4.eps}
396 \caption{PeCO protocol.}
400 We define two types of packets to be used by the PeCO protocol:
402 \item INFO packet: sent by each sensor node to all the nodes inside a same
403 subregion for information exchange.
404 \item ActiveSleep packet: sent by the leader to all the nodes in its subregion
405 to transmit to them their respective status (stay Active or go Sleep) during
409 Five statuses are possible for a sensor node in the network:
411 \item LISTENING: waits for a decision (to be active or not);
412 \item COMPUTATION: executes the optimization algorithm as leader to
413 determine the activities scheduling;
414 \item ACTIVE: node is sensing;
415 \item SLEEP: node is turned off;
416 \item COMMUNICATION: transmits or receives packets.
419 \subsection{PeCO Protocol Algorithm}
421 The pseudocode implementing the protocol on a node is given below. More
422 precisely, Algorithm~\ref{alg:PeCO} gives a brief description of the protocol
423 applied by a sensor node $s_k$ where $k$ is the node index in the WSN.
427 % \KwIn{all the parameters related to information exchange}
428 % \KwOut{$winer-node$ (: the id of the winner sensor node, which is the leader of current round)}
430 %\emph{Initialize the sensor node and determine it's position and subregion} \;
432 \caption{PeCO pseudocode}
433 \eIf{$RE_k \geq E_{th}$}{
434 $s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION\;
435 Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in subregion\;
436 Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in subregion\;
437 Update K.CurrentSize\;
438 LeaderID = Leader election\;
439 \eIf{$s_k.ID = LeaderID$}{
440 $s_k.status$ = COMPUTATION\;
441 \If{$ s_k.ID $ is Not previously selected as a Leader}{
442 Execute the perimeter coverage model\;
444 \eIf{($s_k.ID $ is the same Previous Leader) {\bf and} \\
445 \indent (K.CurrentSize = K.PreviousSize)}{
446 Use the same previous cover set for current sensing stage\;
448 Update $a^j_{ik}$; prepare data for IP~Algorithm\;
449 $\left\{\left(X_{1},\dots,X_{l},\dots,X_{K}\right)\right\}$ = Execute Integer Program Algorithm($K$)\;
450 K.PreviousSize = K.CurrentSize\;
452 $s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION\;
453 Send $ActiveSleep()$ to each node $l$ in subregion\;
456 $s_k.status$ = LISTENING\;
457 Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader\;
461 Exclude $s_k$ from entering in the current sensing stage\;
466 %\noindent{\bf If} $RE_k \geq E_{th}$ {\bf then}\\
467 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{$s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION;}\\
468 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in subregion;}\\
469 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in subregion;}\\
470 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Update K.CurrentSize;}\\
471 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{LeaderID = Leader election;}\\
472 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf If} $ s_k.ID = LeaderID $ {\bf then}\\
473 %\hspace*{1.2cm} \emph{$s_k.status$ = COMPUTATION;}\\
474 %\hspace*{1.2cm}{\bf If} \emph{$ s_k.ID $ is Not previously selected as a Leader} {\bf then}\\
475 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{ Execute the perimeter coverage model;}\\
476 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf end}\\
477 %\hspace*{1.2cm}{\bf If} \emph{($s_k.ID $ is the same Previous Leader)~And~(K.CurrentSize = K.PreviousSize)}\\
478 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{ Use the same previous cover set for current sensing stage;}\\
479 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf end}\\
480 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf else}\\
481 %\hspace*{1.8cm}\emph{Update $a^j_{ik}$; prepare data for IP~Algorithm;}\\
482 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{$\left\{\left(X_{1},\dots,X_{l},\dots,X_{K}\right)\right\}$ = Execute Integer Program Algorithm($K$);}\\
483 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{K.PreviousSize = K.CurrentSize;}\\
484 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf end}\\
485 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{$s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION;}\\
486 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Send $ActiveSleep()$ to each node $l$ in subregion;}\\
487 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Update $RE_k $;}\\
488 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf end}\\
489 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf else}\\
490 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{$s_k.status$ = LISTENING;}\\
491 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader;}\\
492 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Update $RE_k $;}\\
493 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf end}\\
496 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Exclude $s_k$ from entering in the current sensing stage;}\\
501 In this algorithm, $K.CurrentSize$ and $K.PreviousSize$ respectively represent
502 the current number and the previous number of living nodes in the subnetwork of
503 the subregion. At the beginning of the first period $K.PreviousSize$ is
504 initialized to zero. Initially, the sensor node checks its remaining energy
505 $RE_k$, which must be greater than a threshold $E_{th}$ in order to participate
506 in the current period. Each sensor node determines its position and its
507 subregion using an embedded GPS or a location discovery algorithm. After that,
508 all the sensors collect position coordinates, remaining energy, sensor node ID,
509 and the number of their one-hop live neighbors during the information exchange.
510 \textcolor{blue}{Both INFO packet and ActiveSleep packet contain two parts: header and data payload. The sensor ID is included in the header, where the header size is 8 bits. The data part includes position coordinates (64 bits), remaining energy (32 bits), and the number of one-hop live neighbors (8 bits). Therefore the size of the INFO packet is 112 bits. The ActiveSleep packet is 16 bits size, 8 bits for the header and 8 bits for data part that includes only sensor status (0 or 1).}
511 The sensors inside a same region cooperate to elect a leader. The selection
512 criteria for the leader are (in order of priority):
514 \item larger number of neighbors;
515 \item larger remaining energy;
516 \item and then, in case of equality, larger indexes.
518 Once chosen, the leader collects information to formulate and solve the integer
519 program which allows to build the set of active sensors in the sensing
522 \section{Perimeter-based Coverage Problem Formulation}
525 In this section, the perimeter-based coverage problem is mathematically
526 formulated. It has been proved to be a NP-hard problem
527 by \citep{doi:10.1155/2010/926075}. Authors study the coverage of the perimeter
528 of a large object requiring to be monitored. For the proposed formulation in
529 this paper, the large object to be monitored is the sensor itself (or more
530 precisely its sensing area).
532 The following notations are used throughout the section.
534 First, the following sets:
536 \item $S$ represents the set of sensor nodes;
537 \item $A \subseteq S $ is the subset of alive sensors;
538 \item $I_j$ designates the set of coverage intervals (CI) obtained for
541 $I_j$ refers to the set of coverage intervals which has been defined according
542 to the method introduced in Subsection~\ref{CI}. For a coverage interval $i$,
543 let $a^j_{ik}$ denote the indicator function of whether sensor~$k$ is involved
544 in coverage interval~$i$ of sensor~$j$, that is:
548 1 & \mbox{if sensor $k$ is involved in the } \\
549 & \mbox{coverage interval $i$ of sensor $j$}, \\
550 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
553 Note that $a^k_{ik}=1$ by definition of the interval.
555 Second, several variables are defined. Hence, each binary variable $X_{k}$
556 determines the activation of sensor $k$ in the sensing phase ($X_k=1$ if the
557 sensor $k$ is active or 0 otherwise). $M^j_i$ is a variable which measures the
558 undercoverage for the coverage interval $i$ corresponding to sensor~$j$. In the
559 same way, the overcoverage for the same coverage interval is given by the
562 To sustain a level of coverage equal to $l$ all along the perimeter of sensor
563 $j$, at least $l$ sensors involved in each coverage interval $i \in I_j$ of
564 sensor $j$ have to be active. According to the previous notations, the number
565 of active sensors in the coverage interval $i$ of sensor $j$ is given by
566 $\sum_{k \in A} a^j_{ik} X_k$. To extend the network lifetime, the objective is
567 to activate a minimal number of sensors in each period to ensure the desired
568 coverage level. As the number of alive sensors decreases, it becomes impossible
569 to reach the desired level of coverage for all coverage intervals. Therefore
570 variables $M^j_i$ and $V^j_i$ are introduced as a measure of the deviation
571 between the desired number of active sensors in a coverage interval and the
572 effective number. And we try to minimize these deviations, first to force the
573 activation of a minimal number of sensors to ensure the desired coverage level,
574 and if the desired level cannot be completely satisfied, to reach a coverage
575 level as close as possible to the desired one.
577 The coverage optimization problem can then be mathematically expressed as follows:
580 \text{Minimize } & \sum_{j \in S} \sum_{i \in I_j} (\alpha^j_i ~ M^j_i + \beta^j_i ~ V^j_i ) \\
581 \text{Subject to:} & \\
582 & \sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) + M^j_i \geq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S \\
583 & \sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) - V^j_i \leq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S \\
584 & X_{k} \in \{0,1\}, \forall k \in A \\
585 & M^j_i, V^j_i \in \mathbb{R}^{+}
592 %\min \sum_{j \in S} \sum_{i \in I_j} (\alpha^j_i ~ M^j_i + \beta^j_i ~ V^j_i ) & \\
593 %\textrm{subject to :} &\\
594 %\sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) + M^j_i \geq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S\\
595 %\sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) - V^j_i \leq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S\\
596 %X_{k} \in \{0,1\}, \forall k \in A \\
597 %M^j_i, V^j_i \in \mathbb{R}^{+}
602 If a given level of coverage $l$ is required for one sensor, the sensor is said
603 to be undercovered (respectively overcovered) if the level of coverage of one of
604 its CI is less (respectively greater) than $l$. If the sensor $j$ is
605 undercovered, there exists at least one of its CI (say $i$) for which the number
606 of active sensors (denoted by $l^{i}$) covering this part of the perimeter is
607 less than $l$ and in this case : $M_{i}^{j}=l-l^{i}$, $V_{i}^{j}=0$. Conversely,
608 if the sensor $j$ is overcovered, there exists at least one of its CI (say $i$)
609 for which the number of active sensors (denoted by $l^{i}$) covering this part
610 of the perimeter is greater than $l$ and in this case: $M_{i}^{j}=0$,
613 $\alpha^j_i$ and $\beta^j_i$ are nonnegative weights selected according to the
614 relative importance of satisfying the associated level of coverage. For example,
615 weights associated with coverage intervals of the specified part of a region may
616 be given by a relatively larger magnitude than weights associated with another
617 region. This kind of mixed-integer program is inspired from the model developed
618 for brachytherapy treatment planning to optimize dose distribution
619 \citep{0031-9155-44-1-012}. The choice of the values for variables $\alpha$ and
620 $\beta$ should be made according to the needs of the application. $\alpha$
621 should be large enough to prevent undercoverage and so to reach the highest
622 possible coverage ratio. $\beta$ should be large enough to prevent overcoverage
623 and so to activate a minimum number of sensors. The mixed-integer program must
624 be solved by the leader in each subregion at the beginning of each sensing
625 phase, whenever the environment has changed (new leader, death of some sensors).
626 Note that the number of constraints in the model is constant (constraints of
627 coverage expressed for all sensors), whereas the number of variables $X_k$
628 decreases over periods, since only alive sensors (sensors with enough energy to
629 be alive during one sensing phase) are considered in the model.
631 \section{Performance Evaluation and Analysis}
632 \label{sec:Simulation Results and Analysis}
634 \subsection{Simulation Settings}
636 The WSN area of interest is supposed to be divided into 16~regular subregions
637 and we use the same energy consumption model as in our previous
638 work~\citep{Idrees2}. Table~\ref{table3} gives the chosen parameters settings.
641 \tbl{Relevant parameters for network initialization \label{table3}}{
645 Parameter & Value \\ [0.5ex]
647 % inserts single horizontal line
648 Sensing field & $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ \\
649 WSN size & 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300~nodes \\
650 Initial energy & in range 500-700~Joules \\
651 Sensing period & duration of 60 minutes \\
652 $E_{th}$ & 36~Joules \\
655 $\alpha^j_i$ & 0.6 \\
660 To obtain experimental results which are relevant, simulations with five
661 different node densities going from 100 to 300~nodes were performed considering
662 each time 25~randomly generated networks. The nodes are deployed on a field of
663 interest of $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ in such a way that they cover the field with a
664 high coverage ratio. Each node has an initial energy level, in Joules, which is
665 randomly drawn in the interval $[500-700]$. If its energy provision reaches a
666 value below the threshold $E_{th}=36$~Joules, the minimum energy needed for a
667 node to stay active during one period, it will no longer participate in the
668 coverage task. This value corresponds to the energy needed by the sensing phase,
669 obtained by multiplying the energy consumed in the active state (9.72 mW) with
670 the time in seconds for one period (3600 seconds), and adding the energy for the
671 pre-sensing phases. According to the interval of initial energy, a sensor may
672 be active during at most 20 periods. the information exchange to update the coverage
673 is executed every hour, but the length of the sensing period could be reduced
674 and adapted dynamically. On the one hand a small sensing period would allow the network to
675 be more reliable but would have resulted in higher communication costs. On the
676 other hand the choice of a long duration may cause problems in case of nodes
677 failure during the sensing period.
679 The values of $\alpha^j_i$ and $\beta^j_i$ have been chosen to ensure a good
680 network coverage and a longer WSN lifetime. Higher priority is given to the
681 undercoverage (by setting the $\alpha^j_i$ with a larger value than $\beta^j_i$)
682 so as to prevent the non-coverage for the interval~$i$ of the sensor~$j$. On
683 the other hand, $\beta^j_i$ is assigned to a value which is slightly lower so as
684 to minimize the number of active sensor nodes which contribute in covering the
685 interval. Subsection~\ref{sec:Impact} investigates more deeply how the values of
686 both parameters affect the performance of the PeCO protocol.
688 The following performance metrics are used to evaluate the efficiency of the
691 \item {\bf Network Lifetime}: the lifetime is defined as the time elapsed until
692 the coverage ratio falls below a fixed threshold. $Lifetime_{95}$ and
693 $Lifetime_{50}$ denote, respectively, the amount of time during which is
694 guaranteed a level of coverage greater than $95\%$ and $50\%$. The WSN can
695 fulfill the expected monitoring task until all its nodes have depleted their
696 energy or if the network is no more connected. This last condition is crucial
697 because without network connectivity a sensor may not be able to send to a
698 base station an event it has sensed.
699 \item {\bf Coverage Ratio (CR)} : it measures how well the WSN is able to
700 observe the area of interest. In our case, the sensor field is discretized as
701 a regular grid, which yields the following equation:
704 \mbox{CR}(\%) = \frac{\mbox{$n$}}{\mbox{$N$}} \times 100
706 where $n$ is the number of covered grid points by active sensors of every
707 subregions during the current sensing phase and $N$ is total number of grid
708 points in the sensing field. A layout of $N~=~51~\times~26~=~1326$~grid points
709 is considered in the simulations.
710 \item {\bf Active Sensors Ratio (ASR)}: a major objective of our protocol is to
711 activate as few nodes as possible, in order to minimize the communication
712 overhead and maximize the WSN lifetime. The active sensors ratio is defined as
716 \mbox{ASR}(\%) = \frac{\sum\limits_{r=1}^R \mbox{$|A_r^p|$}}{\mbox{$|J|$}} \times 100
718 where $|A_r^p|$ is the number of active sensors in the subregion $r$ in the
719 sensing period~$p$, $R$ is the number of subregions, and $|J|$ is the number
720 of sensors in the network.
722 \item {\bf \textcolor{blue}{Energy Saving Ratio (ESR)}}:
723 \textcolor{blue}{this metric, which shows the ability of a protocol to save energy, is defined by:
726 \mbox{ESR}(\%) = \frac{\mbox{Number of alive sensors during this round}}
727 {\mbox{Total number of sensors in the network}} \times 100.
730 \item {\bf Energy Consumption (EC)}: energy consumption can be seen as the total
731 energy consumed by the sensors during $Lifetime_{95}$ or $Lifetime_{50}$,
732 divided by the number of periods. The value of EC is computed according to
736 \mbox{EC} = \frac{\sum\limits_{p=1}^{P} \left( E^{\mbox{com}}_p+E^{\mbox{list}}_p+E^{\mbox{comp}}_p
737 + E^{a}_p+E^{s}_p \right)}{P},
739 where $P$ corresponds to the number of periods. The total energy consumed by
740 the sensors comes through taking into consideration four main energy
741 factors. The first one, denoted $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{com}}_p$, represents the
742 energy consumption spent by all the nodes for wireless communications during
743 period $p$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{list}}_p$, the next factor, corresponds to
744 the energy consumed by the sensors in LISTENING status before receiving the
745 decision to go active or sleep in period $p$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{comp}}_p$
746 refers to the energy needed by all the leader nodes to solve the integer
747 program during a period (COMPUTATION status). Finally, $E^a_{p}$ and
748 $E^s_{p}$ indicate the energy consumed by the WSN during the sensing phase
749 ({\it active} and {\it sleeping} nodes).
752 \subsection{Simulation Results}
754 In order to assess and analyze the performance of our protocol we have
755 implemented the PeCO protocol in OMNeT++~\citep{varga} simulator. The
756 simulations were run on a DELL laptop with an Intel Core~i3~2370~M (1.8~GHz)
757 processor (2 cores) whose MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) rate is equal
758 to 35330. To be consistent with the use of a sensor node based on Atmels AVR
759 ATmega103L microcontroller (6~MHz) having a MIPS rate equal to 6, the original
760 execution time on the laptop is multiplied by 2944.2 $\left(\frac{35330}{2}
761 \times \frac{1}{6} \right)$. Energy consumption is calculated according to the
762 power consumption values, in milliWatt per second, given in Table~\ref{tab:EC},
763 based on the energy model proposed in \citep{ChinhVu}.
767 \caption{Power consumption values}
769 \begin{tabular}{|l||cccc|}
771 {\bf Sensor status} & MCU & Radio & Sensing & {\it Power (mW)} \\
773 LISTENING & On & On & On & 20.05 \\
774 ACTIVE & On & Off & On & 9.72 \\
775 SLEEP & Off & Off & Off & 0.02 \\
776 COMPUTATION & On & On & On & 26.83 \\
778 \multicolumn{4}{|l}{Energy needed to send or receive a 2-bit content message} & 0.515 \\
783 The modeling language for Mathematical Programming (AMPL)~\citep{AMPL} is used
784 to generate the integer program instance in a standard format, which is then
785 read and solved by the optimization solver GLPK (GNU linear Programming Kit
786 available in the public domain) \citep{glpk} through a Branch-and-Bound method.
787 In practice, executing GLPK on a sensor node is obviously intractable due to the
788 huge memory use. Fortunately, to solve the optimization problem we could use
789 commercial solvers like CPLEX \citep{iamigo:cplex} which are less memory
790 consuming and more efficient, or implement a lightweight heuristic. For example,
791 for a WSN of 200 sensor nodes, a leader node has to deal with constraints
792 induced by about 12 sensor nodes. In that case, to solve the optimization
793 problem a memory consumption of more than 1~MB can be observed with GLPK,
794 whereas less than 300~KB would be needed with CPLEX.
796 Besides PeCO, three other protocols will be evaluated for comparison
797 purposes. The first one, called DESK, is a fully distributed coverage algorithm
798 proposed by \citep{ChinhVu}. The second one, called
799 GAF~\citep{xu2001geography}, consists in dividing the monitoring area into fixed
800 squares. Then, during the decision phase, in each square, one sensor is chosen
801 to remain active during the sensing phase. The last one, the DiLCO
802 protocol~\citep{Idrees2}, is an improved version of a research work we presented
803 in~\citep{idrees2014coverage}. Let us notice that the PeCO and DiLCO protocols
804 are based on the same framework. In particular, the choice for the simulations
805 of a partitioning in 16~subregions was made because it corresponds to the
806 configuration producing the best results for DiLCO. Of course, this number of
807 subregions should be adapted according to the size of the area of interest and
808 the number of sensors. The protocols are distinguished from one another by the
809 formulation of the integer program providing the set of sensors which have to be
810 activated in each sensing phase. The DiLCO protocol tries to satisfy the
811 coverage of a set of primary points, whereas the objective of the PeCO protocol
812 is to reach a desired level of coverage for each sensor perimeter. In our
813 experimentations, we chose a level of coverage equal to one ($l=1$).
815 \subsubsection{Coverage Ratio}
817 Figure~\ref{figure5} shows the average coverage ratio for 200 deployed nodes
818 obtained with the four protocols. DESK, GAF, and DiLCO provide a slightly better
819 coverage ratio with respectively 99.99\%, 99.91\%, and 99.02\%, compared to the
820 98.76\% produced by PeCO for the first periods. This is due to the fact that at
821 the beginning the DiLCO and PeCO protocols put more redundant sensors to sleep
822 status (which slightly decreases the coverage ratio), while the two other
823 protocols activate more sensor nodes. Later, when the number of periods is
824 beyond~70, it clearly appears that PeCO provides a better coverage ratio and
825 keeps a coverage ratio greater than 50\% for longer periods (15 more compared to
826 DiLCO, 40 more compared to DESK). The energy saved by PeCO in the early periods
827 allows later a substantial increase of the coverage performance.
832 \includegraphics[scale=0.5] {figure5.eps}
833 \caption{Coverage ratio for 200 deployed nodes.}
837 \subsubsection{Active Sensors Ratio}
839 Minimizing the number of active sensor nodes in each period is essential to minimize the
840 energy consumption and thus to maximize the network lifetime.
841 Figure~\ref{figure6} shows the average active nodes ratio for 200 deployed
842 nodes. We observe that DESK and GAF have 30.36~\% and 34.96~\% active nodes for
843 the first fourteen rounds, and the DiLCO and PeCO protocols compete perfectly with
844 only 17.92~\% and 20.16~\% active nodes during the same time interval. As the
845 number of periods increases, the PeCO protocol has a lower number of active nodes in
846 comparison with the three other approaches and exhibits a slow decrease, while
847 keeping a greater coverage ratio as shown in Figure \ref{figure5}.
851 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure6.eps}
852 \caption{Active sensors ratio for 200 deployed nodes.}
856 \subsubsection{\textcolor{blue}{Energy Saving Ratio (ESR)}}
858 %\textcolor{blue}{In this experiment, we study the energy saving ratio, see Figure~\ref{fig5}, for 200 deployed nodes.
859 %The larger the ratio is, the more redundant sensor nodes are switched off, and consequently the longer the network may liv%e. }
861 \textcolor{blue}{The simulation results show that our protocol PeCO allows to
862 efficiently save energy by turning off some sensors during the sensing phase.
863 As shown in Figure~\ref{fig5}, GAF provides better energy saving than PeCO for
864 the first fifty rounds, because GAF balances the energy consumption among
865 sensor nodes inside each small fixed grid and thus permits to extend the life of
866 sensors in each grid fairly but in the same time turn on large number of
867 sensors during sensing that lead later to quickly deplete sensor's batteries
870 After that GAF provide less energy saving compared with other
871 approaches because of the large number of dead nodes. DESK algorithm shows less
872 energy saving compared with other approaches due to activate a large number of
873 sensors during the sensing. DiLCO protocol provides less energy saving ratio
874 compared with PeCO because it generally activate a larger number of sensor
875 nodes during sensing. Note that again as the number of rounds increases PeCO
876 becomes the most performing one, since it consumes less energy compared with
881 % \begin{multicols}{6}
883 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{ESR.eps} %\\~ ~ ~(a)
884 \caption{Energy Saving Ratio for 200 deployed nodes}
890 \subsubsection{Energy Consumption}
892 The effect of the energy consumed by the WSN during the communication,
893 computation, listening, active, and sleep status is studied for different
894 network densities and the four approaches compared. Figures~\ref{figure7}(a)
895 and (b) illustrate the energy consumption for different network sizes and for
896 $Lifetime_{95}$ and $Lifetime_{50}$. The results show that the PeCO protocol is the most
897 competitive from the energy consumption point of view. As shown by both figures,
898 PeCO consumes much less energy than the other methods. One might think that the
899 resolution of the integer program is too costly in energy, but the results show
900 that it is very beneficial to lose a bit of time in the selection of sensors to
901 activate. Indeed the optimization program allows to reduce significantly the
902 number of active sensors and also the energy consumption while keeping a good
903 coverage level. Let us notice that the energy overhead when increasing network
904 size is the lowest with PeCO.
908 \begin{tabular}{@{}cr@{}}
909 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure7a.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(a)} \\
910 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure7b.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(b)}
912 \caption{Energy consumption per period for (a)~$Lifetime_{95}$ and (b)~$Lifetime_{50}$.}
916 \subsubsection{Network Lifetime}
918 We observe the superiority of both the PeCO and DiLCO protocols in comparison with
919 the two other approaches in prolonging the network lifetime. In
920 Figures~\ref{figure8}(a) and (b), $Lifetime_{95}$ and $Lifetime_{50}$ are shown for
921 different network sizes. As can be seen in these figures, the lifetime
922 increases with the size of the network, and it is clearly larger for the DiLCO and
923 PeCO protocols. For instance, for a network of 300~sensors and coverage ratio
924 greater than 50\%, we can see on Figure~\ref{figure8}(b) that the lifetime is
925 about twice longer with PeCO compared to the DESK protocol. The performance
926 difference is more obvious in Figure~\ref{figure8}(b) than in
927 Figure~\ref{figure8}(a) because the gain induced by our protocols increases with
928 time, and the lifetime with a coverage over 50\% is far longer than with 95\%.
932 \begin{tabular}{@{}cr@{}}
933 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure8a.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(a)} \\
934 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure8b.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(b)}
936 \caption{Network Lifetime for (a)~$Lifetime_{95}$ and (b)~$Lifetime_{50}$.}
940 Figure~\ref{figure9} compares the lifetime coverage of the DiLCO and PeCO protocols
941 for different coverage ratios. We denote by Protocol/50, Protocol/80,
942 Protocol/85, Protocol/90, and Protocol/95 the amount of time during which the
943 network can satisfy an area coverage greater than $50\%$, $80\%$, $85\%$,
944 $90\%$, and $95\%$ respectively, where the term Protocol refers to DiLCO or
945 PeCO. \textcolor{blue}{Indeed there are applications that do not require a 100\% coverage of the
946 area to be monitored. For example, forest
947 fire application might require complete coverage
948 in summer seasons while only requires 80$\%$ of the area to be covered in rainy seasons \cite{li2011transforming}. As another example, birds habit study requires only 70$\%$-coverage at nighttime when the birds are sleeping while requires 100$\%$-coverage at daytime when the birds are active \cite{vu2009universal}. Mudflows monitoring applications may require part of the area to be covered in sunny days. Thus, to extend network lifetime, the coverage quality can be decreased if it is acceptable\cite{wang2014keeping}}. PeCO might be an interesting method since it achieves a good balance between a high level coverage ratio and network lifetime. PeCO
949 always outperforms DiLCO for the three lower coverage ratios, moreover the
950 improvements grow with the network size. \textcolor{blue}{DiLCO outperforms PeCO when the coverage ratio is required to be $>90\%$, but PeCo extends the network lifetime significantly when coverage ratio can be relaxed.}
951 %DiLCO is better for coverage ratios near 100\%, but in that case PeCO is not ineffective for the smallest network sizes.
954 \centering \includegraphics[scale=0.55]{figure9.eps}
955 \caption{Network lifetime for different coverage ratios.}
959 \subsubsection{Impact of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ on PeCO's performance}
962 Table~\ref{my-labelx} shows network lifetime results for different values of
963 $\alpha$ and $\beta$, and a network size equal to 200 sensor nodes. On the one
964 hand, the choice of $\beta \gg \alpha$ prevents the overcoverage, and also
965 limits the activation of a large number of sensors, but as $\alpha$ is low, some
966 areas may be poorly covered. This explains the results obtained for
967 $Lifetime_{50}$ with $\beta \gg \alpha$: a large number of periods with low
968 coverage ratio. On the other hand, when we choose $\alpha \gg \beta$, we favor
969 the coverage even if some areas may be overcovered, so a high coverage ratio is
970 reached, but a large number of sensors are activated to achieve this goal.
971 Therefore the network lifetime is reduced. The choice $\alpha=0.6$ and
972 $\beta=0.4$ seems to achieve the best compromise between lifetime and coverage
973 ratio. That explains why we have chosen this setting for the experiments
974 presented in the previous subsections.
976 %As can be seen in Table~\ref{my-labelx}, it is obvious and clear that when $\alpha$ decreased and $\beta$ increased by any step, the network lifetime for $Lifetime_{50}$ increased and the $Lifetime_{95}$ decreased. Therefore, selecting the values of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ depend on the application type used in the sensor nework. In PeCO protocol, $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are chosen based on the largest value of network lifetime for $Lifetime_{95}$.
980 \caption{The impact of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ on PeCO's performance}
982 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
984 $\alpha$ & $\beta$ & $Lifetime_{50}$ & $Lifetime_{95}$ \\ \hline
985 0.0 & 1.0 & 151 & 0 \\ \hline
986 0.1 & 0.9 & 145 & 0 \\ \hline
987 0.2 & 0.8 & 140 & 0 \\ \hline
988 0.3 & 0.7 & 134 & 0 \\ \hline
989 0.4 & 0.6 & 125 & 0 \\ \hline
990 0.5 & 0.5 & 118 & 30 \\ \hline
991 {\bf 0.6} & {\bf 0.4} & {\bf 94} & {\bf 57} \\ \hline
992 0.7 & 0.3 & 97 & 49 \\ \hline
993 0.8 & 0.2 & 90 & 52 \\ \hline
994 0.9 & 0.1 & 77 & 50 \\ \hline
995 1.0 & 0.0 & 60 & 44 \\ \hline
1000 \section{Conclusion and Future Works}
1001 \label{sec:Conclusion and Future Works}
1003 In this paper we have studied the problem of perimeter coverage optimization in
1004 WSNs. We have designed a new protocol, called Perimeter-based Coverage
1005 Optimization, which schedules nodes' activities (wake up and sleep stages) with
1006 the objective of maintaining a good coverage ratio while maximizing the network
1007 lifetime. This protocol is applied in a distributed way in regular subregions
1008 obtained after partitioning the area of interest in a preliminary step. It works
1009 in periods and is based on the resolution of an integer program to select the
1010 subset of sensors operating in active status for each period. Our work is
1011 original in so far as it proposes for the first time an integer program
1012 scheduling the activation of sensors based on their perimeter coverage level,
1013 instead of using a set of targets/points to be covered. Several simulations have
1014 been carried out to evaluate the proposed protocol. The simulation results show
1015 that PeCO is more energy-efficient than other approaches, with respect to
1016 lifetime, coverage ratio, active sensors ratio, and energy consumption.
1018 We plan to extend our framework so that the schedules are planned for multiple
1019 sensing periods. We also want to improve the integer program to take into
1020 account heterogeneous sensors from both energy and node characteristics point of
1021 views. Finally, it would be interesting to implement the PeCO protocol using a
1022 sensor-testbed to evaluate it in real world applications.
1024 \subsection*{Acknowledgments}
1025 The authors are deeply grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their
1026 constructive advice, which improved the technical quality of the paper. As a
1027 Ph.D. student, Ali Kadhum Idrees would like to gratefully acknowledge the
1028 University of Babylon - Iraq for financial support and Campus France for the
1029 received support. This work is also partially funded by the Labex ACTION program
1030 (contract ANR-11-LABX-01-01).
1032 \bibliographystyle{gENO}
1033 \bibliography{biblio} %articleeo