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11 %\jvol{00} \jnum{00} \jyear{2013} \jmonth{April}
15 \title{{\itshape Perimeter-based Coverage Optimization to Improve Lifetime \\
16 in Wireless Sensor Networks}}
18 \author{Ali Kadhum Idrees$^{a}$, Karine Deschinkel$^{a}$$^{\ast}$\thanks{$^\ast$Corresponding author. Email: karine.deschinkel@univ-fcomte.fr}, Michel Salomon$^{a}$ and Rapha\"el Couturier $^{a}$
19 $^{a}${\em{FEMTO-ST Institute, UMR 6174 CNRS, University of Franche-Comt\'e,
25 The most important problem in a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is to optimize the
26 use of its limited energy provision, so that it can fulfill its monitoring task
27 as long as possible. Among known available approaches that can be used to
28 improve power management, lifetime coverage optimization provides activity
29 scheduling which ensures sensing coverage while minimizing the energy cost. We
30 propose such an approach called Perimeter-based Coverage Optimization protocol
31 (PeCO). It is a hybrid of centralized and distributed methods: the region of
32 interest is first subdivided into subregions and the protocol is then
33 distributed among sensor nodes in each subregion. The novelty of our approach
34 lies essentially in the formulation of a new mathematical optimization model
35 based on the perimeter coverage level to schedule sensors' activities.
36 Extensive simulation experiments demonstrate that PeCO can offer longer lifetime
37 coverage for WSNs in comparison with some other protocols.
40 Wireless Sensor Networks, Area Coverage, Energy efficiency, Optimization, Scheduling.
45 \section{Introduction}
46 \label{sec:introduction}
48 The continuous progress in Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS) and wireless
49 communication hardware has given rise to the opportunity to use large networks
50 of tiny sensors, called Wireless Sensor Networks
51 (WSN)~\citep{akyildiz2002wireless,puccinelli2005wireless}, to fulfill monitoring
52 tasks. A WSN consists of small low-powered sensors working together by
53 communicating with one another through multi-hop radio communications. Each node
54 can send the data it collects in its environment, thanks to its sensor, to the
55 user by means of sink nodes. The features of a WSN made it suitable for a wide
56 range of application in areas such as business, environment, health, industry,
57 military, and so on~\citep{yick2008wireless}. Typically, a sensor node contains
58 three main components~\citep{anastasi2009energy}: a sensing unit able to measure
59 physical, chemical, or biological phenomena observed in the environment; a
60 processing unit which will process and store the collected measurements; a radio
61 communication unit for data transmission and receiving.
63 The energy needed by an active sensor node to perform sensing, processing, and
64 communication is supplied by a power supply which is a battery. This battery has
65 a limited energy provision and it may be unsuitable or impossible to replace or
66 recharge it in most applications. Therefore it is necessary to deploy WSN with
67 high density in order to increase reliability and to exploit node redundancy
68 thanks to energy-efficient activity scheduling approaches. Indeed, the overlap
69 of sensing areas can be exploited to schedule alternatively some sensors in a
70 low power sleep mode and thus save energy. Overall, the main question that must
71 be answered is: how to extend the lifetime coverage of a WSN as long as possible
72 while ensuring a high level of coverage? These past few years many
73 energy-efficient mechanisms have been suggested to retain energy and extend the
74 lifetime of the WSNs~\citep{rault2014energy}.
76 This paper makes the following contributions.
78 \item A framework is devised to schedule nodes to be activated alternatively
79 such that the network lifetime is prolonged while ensuring that a certain
80 level of coverage is preserved. A key idea in the proposed framework is to
81 exploit spatial and temporal subdivision. On the one hand, the area of
82 interest is divided into several smaller subregions and, on the other hand,
83 the time line is divided into periods of equal length. In each subregion the
84 sensor nodes will cooperatively choose a leader which will schedule nodes'
85 activities, and this grouping of sensors is similar to typical cluster
87 \item A new mathematical optimization model is proposed. Instead of trying to
88 cover a set of specified points/targets as in most of the methods proposed in
89 the literature, we formulate an integer program based on perimeter coverage of
90 each sensor. The model involves integer variables to capture the deviations
91 between the actual level of coverage and the required level. Hence, an
92 optimal schedule will be obtained by minimizing a weighted sum of these
94 \item Extensive simulation experiments are conducted using the discrete event
95 simulator OMNeT++, to demonstrate the efficiency of our protocol. We have
96 compared the PeCO protocol to two approaches found in the literature:
97 DESK~\citep{ChinhVu} and GAF~\citep{xu2001geography}, and also to our previous
98 protocol DiLCO published in~\citep{Idrees2}. DiLCO uses the same framework as
99 PeCO but is based on another optimization model for sensor scheduling.
102 The rest of the paper is organized as follows. In the next section some related
103 work in the field is reviewed. Section~\ref{sec:The PeCO Protocol Description}
104 is devoted to the PeCO protocol description and Section~\ref{cp} focuses on the
105 coverage model formulation which is used to schedule the activation of sensor
106 nodes. Section~\ref{sec:Simulation Results and Analysis} presents simulations
107 results and discusses the comparison with other approaches. Finally, concluding
108 remarks are drawn and some suggestions are given for future works in
109 Section~\ref{sec:Conclusion and Future Works}.
111 \section{Related Literature}
112 \label{sec:Literature Review}
114 This section summarizes some related works regarding the coverage problem and
115 presents specific aspects of the PeCO protocol common with other literature
118 The most discussed coverage problems in literature can be classified in three
119 categories~\citep{li2013survey} according to their respective monitoring
120 objective. Hence, area coverage \citep{Misra} means that every point inside a
121 fixed area must be monitored, while target coverage~\citep{yang2014novel} refers
122 to the objective of coverage for a finite number of discrete points called
123 targets, and barrier coverage~\citep{HeShibo,kim2013maximum} focuses on
124 preventing intruders from entering into the region of interest. In
125 \citep{Deng2012} authors transform the area coverage problem into the target
126 coverage one taking into account the intersection points among disks of sensors
127 nodes or between disk of sensor nodes and boundaries. In
128 \citep{Huang:2003:CPW:941350.941367} authors prove that if the perimeters of
129 sensors are sufficiently covered it will be the case for the whole area. They
130 provide an algorithm in $O(nd~log~d)$ time to compute the perimeter-coverage of
131 each sensor. $d$ denotes the maximum number of sensors that are neighbors to a
132 sensor, and $n$ is the total number of sensors in the network. {\it In PeCO
133 protocol, instead of determining the level of coverage of a set of discrete
134 points, our optimization model is based on checking the perimeter-coverage of
135 each sensor to activate a minimal number of sensors.}
137 The major approach to extend network lifetime while preserving coverage is to
138 divide/organize the sensors into a suitable number of set covers (disjoint or
139 non-disjoint) \citep{wang2011coverage}, where each set completely covers a
140 region of interest, and to activate these set covers successively. The network
141 activity can be planned in advance and scheduled for the entire network lifetime
142 or organized in periods, and the set of active sensor nodes decided at the
143 beginning of each period \citep{ling2009energy}. In fact, many authors propose
144 algorithms working in such a periodic fashion
145 \citep{chin2007,yan2008design,pc10}. Active node selection is determined based
146 on the problem requirements (e.g. area monitoring, connectivity, or power
147 efficiency). For instance, \citet{jaggi2006} address the problem of maximizing
148 the lifetime by dividing sensors into the maximum number of disjoint subsets
149 such that each subset can ensure both coverage and connectivity. A greedy
150 algorithm is applied once to solve this problem and the computed sets are
151 activated in succession to achieve the desired network lifetime. {\it Motivated
152 by these works, PeCO protocol works in periods, where each period contains a
153 preliminary phase for information exchange and decisions, followed by a
154 sensing phase where one cover set is in charge of the sensing task.}
156 Various centralized and distributed approaches, or even a mixing of these two
157 concepts, have been proposed to extend the network lifetime
158 \citep{zhou2009variable}. In distributed
159 algorithms~\citep{ChinhVu,qu2013distributed,yangnovel} each sensor decides of
160 its own activity scheduling after an information exchange with its neighbors.
161 The main interest of such an approach is to avoid long range communications and
162 thus to reduce the energy dedicated to the communications. Unfortunately, since
163 each node has only information on its immediate neighbors (usually the one-hop
164 ones) it may make a bad decision leading to a global suboptimal solution.
165 Conversely, centralized
166 algorithms~\citep{cardei2005improving,zorbas2010solving,pujari2011high} always
167 provide nearly or close to optimal solution since the algorithm has a global
168 view of the whole network. The disadvantage of a centralized method is obviously
169 its high cost in communications needed to transmit to a single node, the base
170 station which will globally schedule nodes' activities, data from all the other
171 sensor nodes in the area. The price in communications can be huge since long
172 range communications will be needed. In fact the larger the WSN, the higher the
173 communication energy cost. {\it In order to be suitable for large-scale
174 networks, in PeCO protocol the area of interest is divided into several
175 smaller subregions, and in each one, a node called the leader is in charge of
176 selecting the active sensors for the current period. Thus PeCO protocol is
177 scalable and a globally distributed method, whereas it is centralized in each
180 Various coverage scheduling algorithms have been developed these past few years.
181 Many of them, dealing with the maximization of the number of cover sets, are
182 heuristics. These heuristics involve the construction of a cover set by
183 including in priority the sensor nodes which cover critical targets, that is to
184 say targets that are covered by the smallest number of sensors
185 \citep{berman04,zorbas2010solving}. Other approaches are based on mathematical
187 formulations~\citep{cardei2005energy,5714480,pujari2011high,Yang2014} and
188 dedicated techniques (solving with a branch-and-bound algorithm available in
189 optimization solver). The problem is formulated as an optimization problem
190 (maximization of the lifetime or number of cover sets) under target coverage and
191 energy constraints. Column generation techniques, well-known and widely
192 practiced techniques for solving linear programs with too many variables, have
194 used~\citep{castano2013column,doi:10.1080/0305215X.2012.687732,deschinkel2012column}.
195 {\it In the PeCO protocol, each leader, in charge of a subregion, solves an
196 integer program which has a twofold objective: minimize the overcoverage and
197 the undercoverage of the perimeter of each sensor.}
199 The authors in \citep{Idrees2} propose a Distributed Lifetime Coverage
200 Optimization (DiLCO) protocol, which maintains the coverage and improves the
201 lifetime in WSNs. It is an improved version of a research work presented
202 in~\citep{idrees2014coverage}. First, the area of interest is partitioned into
203 subregions using a divide-and-conquer method. DiLCO protocol is then distributed
204 on the sensor nodes in each subregion in a second step. Hence this protocol
205 combines two techniques: a leader election in each subregion, followed by an
206 optimization-based node activity scheduling performed by each elected
207 leader. The proposed DiLCO protocol is a periodic protocol where each period is
208 decomposed into 4 phases: information exchange, leader election, decision, and
209 sensing. The simulations show that DiLCO is able to increase the WSN lifetime
210 and provides improved coverage performance. {\it In the PeCO protocol, a new
211 mathematical optimization model is proposed. Instead of trying to cover a set
212 of specified points/targets as in DiLCO protocol, we formulate an integer
213 program based on perimeter coverage of each sensor. The model involves integer
214 variables to capture the deviations between the actual level of coverage and
215 the required level. The idea is that an optimal scheduling will be obtained by
216 minimizing a weighted sum of these deviations.}
218 \section{ The P{\scshape e}CO Protocol Description}
219 \label{sec:The PeCO Protocol Description}
221 %In this section, the Perimeter-based Coverage
222 %Optimization protocol is decribed in details. First we present the assumptions we made and the models
223 %we considered (in particular the perimeter coverage one), second we describe the
224 %background idea of our protocol, and third we give the outline of the algorithm
225 %executed by each node.
228 \subsection{Assumptions and Models}
231 A WSN consisting of $J$ stationary sensor nodes randomly and uniformly
232 distributed in a bounded sensor field is considered. The wireless sensors are
233 deployed in high density to ensure initially a high coverage ratio of the area
234 of interest. We assume that all the sensor nodes are homogeneous in terms of
235 communication, sensing, and processing capabilities and heterogeneous from the
236 energy provision point of view. The location information is available to a
237 sensor node either through hardware such as embedded GPS or location discovery
238 algorithms. We consider a Boolean disk coverage model, which is the most widely
239 used sensor coverage model in the literature, and all sensor nodes have a
240 constant sensing range $R_s$. Thus, all the space points within a disk centered
241 at a sensor with a radius equal to the sensing range are said to be covered by
242 this sensor. We also assume that the communication range $R_c$ satisfies $R_c
243 \geq 2 \cdot R_s$. In fact, \citet{Zhang05} proved that if the transmission
244 range fulfills the previous hypothesis, the complete coverage of a convex area
245 implies connectivity among active nodes.
247 The PeCO protocol uses the same perimeter-coverage model as
248 \citet{huang2005coverage}. It can be expressed as follows: a sensor is said to
249 be perimeter covered if all the points on its perimeter are covered by at least
250 one sensor other than itself. Authors \citet{huang2005coverage} proved that a
251 network area is $k$-covered (every point in the area is covered by at least
252 $k$~sensors) if and only if each sensor in the network is $k$-perimeter-covered
253 (perimeter covered by at least $k$ sensors).
255 Figure~\ref{figure1}(a) shows the coverage of sensor node~$0$. On this figure,
256 sensor~$0$ has nine neighbors and we have reported on its perimeter (the
257 perimeter of the disk covered by the sensor) for each neighbor the two points
258 resulting from the intersection of the two sensing areas. These points are
259 denoted for neighbor~$i$ by $iL$ and $iR$, respectively for left and right from
260 a neighboring point of view. The resulting couples of intersection points
261 subdivide the perimeter of sensor~$0$ into portions called arcs.
265 \begin{tabular}{@{}cr@{}}
266 \includegraphics[width=75mm]{figure1a.eps} & \raisebox{3.25cm}{(a)} \\
267 \includegraphics[width=75mm]{figure1b.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(b)}
269 \caption{(a) Perimeter coverage of sensor node 0 and (b) finding the arc of
270 $u$'s perimeter covered by $v$.}
274 Figure~\ref{figure1}(b) describes the geometric information used to find the
275 locations of the left and right points of an arc on the perimeter of a sensor
276 node~$u$ covered by a sensor node~$v$. Node~$v$ is supposed to be located on the
277 west side of sensor~$u$, with the following respective coordinates in the
278 sensing area~: $(v_x,v_y)$ and $(u_x,u_y)$. From the previous coordinates the
279 euclidean distance between nodes~$u$ and $v$ is computed as follows:
281 Dist(u,v)=\sqrt{\vert u_x - v_x \vert^2 + \vert u_y-v_y \vert^2},
283 while the angle~$\alpha$ is obtained through the formula:
285 \alpha = \arccos \left(\frac{Dist(u,v)}{2R_s} \right).
287 The arc on the perimeter of~$u$ defined by the angular interval $[\pi -
288 \alpha,\pi + \alpha]$ is then said to be perimeter-covered by sensor~$v$.
290 Every couple of intersection points is placed on the angular interval $[0,2\pi)$
291 in a counterclockwise manner, leading to a partitioning of the interval.
292 Figure~\ref{figure1}(a) illustrates the arcs for the nine neighbors of
293 sensor $0$ and Table~\ref{my-label} gives the position of the corresponding arcs
294 in the interval $[0,2\pi)$. More precisely, the points are
295 ordered according to the measures of the angles defined by their respective
296 positions. The intersection points are then visited one after another, starting
297 from the first intersection point after point~zero, and the maximum level of
298 coverage is determined for each interval defined by two successive points. The
299 maximum level of coverage is equal to the number of overlapping arcs. For
300 example, between~$5L$ and~$6L$ the maximum level of coverage is equal to $3$
301 (the value is highlighted in yellow at the bottom of Figure~\ref{figure2}), which
302 means that at most 2~neighbors can cover the perimeter in addition to node $0$.
303 Table~\ref{my-label} summarizes for each coverage interval the maximum level of
304 coverage and the sensor nodes covering the perimeter. The example discussed
305 above is thus given by the sixth line of the table.
309 \includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{figure2.eps}
310 \caption{Maximum coverage levels for perimeter of sensor node $0$.}
315 \tbl{Coverage intervals and contributing sensors for node 0 \label{my-label}}
316 {\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|}
318 \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
319 0.0291 & 1L & 2L & 4 & 0 & 1 & 3 & 4 & \\ \hline
320 0.104 & 2L & 3R & 5 & 0 & 1 & 3 & 4 & 2 \\ \hline
321 0.3168 & 3R & 4R & 4 & 0 & 1 & 4 & 2 & \\ \hline
322 0.6752 & 4R & 1R & 3 & 0 & 1 & 2 & & \\ \hline
323 1.8127 & 1R & 5L & 2 & 0 & 2 & & & \\ \hline
324 1.9228 & 5L & 6L & 3 & 0 & 2 & 5 & & \\ \hline
325 2.3959 & 6L & 2R & 4 & 0 & 2 & 5 & 6 & \\ \hline
326 2.4258 & 2R & 7L & 3 & 0 & 5 & 6 & & \\ \hline
327 2.7868 & 7L & 8L & 4 & 0 & 5 & 6 & 7 & \\ \hline
328 2.8358 & 8L & 5R & 5 & 0 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 \\ \hline
329 2.9184 & 5R & 7R & 4 & 0 & 6 & 7 & 8 & \\ \hline
330 3.3301 & 7R & 9R & 3 & 0 & 6 & 8 & & \\ \hline
331 3.9464 & 9R & 6R & 4 & 0 & 6 & 8 & 9 & \\ \hline
332 4.767 & 6R & 3L & 3 & 0 & 8 & 9 & & \\ \hline
333 4.8425 & 3L & 8R & 4 & 0 & 3 & 8 & 9 & \\ \hline
334 4.9072 & 8R & 4L & 3 & 0 & 3 & 9 & & \\ \hline
335 5.3804 & 4L & 9R & 4 & 0 & 3 & 4 & 9 & \\ \hline
336 5.9157 & 9R & 1L & 3 & 0 & 3 & 4 & & \\ \hline
342 In the PeCO protocol, the scheduling of the sensor nodes' activities is
343 formulated with an mixed-integer program based on coverage
344 intervals~\citep{doi:10.1155/2010/926075}. The formulation of the coverage
345 optimization problem is detailed in~Section~\ref{cp}. Note that when a sensor
346 node has a part of its sensing range outside the WSN sensing field, as in
347 Figure~\ref{figure3}, the maximum coverage level for this arc is set to $\infty$
348 and the corresponding interval will not be taken into account by the
349 optimization algorithm.
354 \includegraphics[width=62.5mm]{figure3.eps}
355 \caption{Sensing range outside the WSN's area of interest.}
361 \subsection{Main Idea}
363 The WSN area of interest is, in a first step, divided into regular homogeneous
364 subregions using a divide-and-conquer algorithm. In a second step our protocol
365 will be executed in a distributed way in each subregion simultaneously to
366 schedule nodes' activities for one sensing period. Node Sensors are assumed to
367 be deployed almost uniformly over the region. The regular subdivision is made
368 such that the number of hops between any pairs of sensors inside a subregion is
369 less than or equal to 3.
371 As shown in Figure~\ref{figure4}, node activity scheduling is produced by the
372 proposed protocol in a periodic manner. Each period is divided into 4 stages:
373 Information (INFO) Exchange, Leader Election, Decision (the result of an
374 optimization problem), and Sensing. For each period there is exactly one set
375 cover responsible for the sensing task. Protocols based on a periodic scheme,
376 like PeCO, are more robust against an unexpected node failure. On the one hand,
377 if a node failure is discovered before taking the decision, the corresponding
378 sensor node will not be considered by the optimization algorithm. On the other
379 hand, if the sensor failure happens after the decision, the sensing task of the
380 network will be temporarily affected: only during the period of sensing until a
381 new period starts, since a new set cover will take charge of the sensing task in
382 the next period. The energy consumption and some other constraints can easily be
383 taken into account since the sensors can update and then exchange their
384 information (including their residual energy) at the beginning of each period.
385 However, the pre-sensing phases (INFO Exchange, Leader Election, and Decision)
386 are energy consuming, even for nodes that will not join the set cover to monitor
387 the area. Sensing period duration is adapted according to the QoS requirements
392 \includegraphics[width=85mm]{figure4.eps}
393 \caption{PeCO protocol.}
397 We define two types of packets to be used by PeCO protocol:
399 \item INFO packet: sent by each sensor node to all the nodes inside a same
400 subregion for information exchange.
401 \item ActiveSleep packet: sent by the leader to all the nodes in its subregion
402 to transmit to them their respective status (stay Active or go Sleep) during
406 Five statuses are possible for a sensor node in the network:
408 \item LISTENING: waits for a decision (to be active or not);
409 \item COMPUTATION: executes the optimization algorithm as leader to
410 determine the activities scheduling;
411 \item ACTIVE: node is sensing;
412 \item SLEEP: node is turned off;
413 \item COMMUNICATION: transmits or receives packets.
416 \subsection{PeCO Protocol Algorithm}
418 The pseudocode implementing the protocol on a node is given below. More
419 precisely, Algorithm~\ref{alg:PeCO} gives a brief description of the protocol
420 applied by a sensor node $s_k$ where $k$ is the node index in the WSN.
424 % \KwIn{all the parameters related to information exchange}
425 % \KwOut{$winer-node$ (: the id of the winner sensor node, which is the leader of current round)}
427 %\emph{Initialize the sensor node and determine it's position and subregion} \;
429 \caption{PeCO pseudocode}
430 \eIf{$RE_k \geq E_{th}$}{
431 $s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION\;
432 Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in subregion\;
433 Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in subregion\;
434 Update K.CurrentSize\;
435 LeaderID = Leader election\;
436 \eIf{$s_k.ID = LeaderID$}{
437 $s_k.status$ = COMPUTATION\;
438 \If{$ s_k.ID $ is Not previously selected as a Leader}{
439 Execute the perimeter coverage model\;
441 \eIf{($s_k.ID $ is the same Previous Leader) {\bf and} \\
442 \indent (K.CurrentSize = K.PreviousSize)}{
443 Use the same previous cover set for current sensing stage\;
445 Update $a^j_{ik}$; prepare data for IP~Algorithm\;
446 $\left\{\left(X_{1},\dots,X_{l},\dots,X_{K}\right)\right\}$ = Execute Integer Program Algorithm($K$)\;
447 K.PreviousSize = K.CurrentSize\;
449 $s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION\;
450 Send $ActiveSleep()$ to each node $l$ in subregion\;
453 $s_k.status$ = LISTENING\;
454 Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader\;
458 Exclude $s_k$ from entering in the current sensing stage\;
463 %\noindent{\bf If} $RE_k \geq E_{th}$ {\bf then}\\
464 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{$s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION;}\\
465 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in subregion;}\\
466 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in subregion;}\\
467 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Update K.CurrentSize;}\\
468 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{LeaderID = Leader election;}\\
469 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf If} $ s_k.ID = LeaderID $ {\bf then}\\
470 %\hspace*{1.2cm} \emph{$s_k.status$ = COMPUTATION;}\\
471 %\hspace*{1.2cm}{\bf If} \emph{$ s_k.ID $ is Not previously selected as a Leader} {\bf then}\\
472 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{ Execute the perimeter coverage model;}\\
473 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf end}\\
474 %\hspace*{1.2cm}{\bf If} \emph{($s_k.ID $ is the same Previous Leader)~And~(K.CurrentSize = K.PreviousSize)}\\
475 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{ Use the same previous cover set for current sensing stage;}\\
476 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf end}\\
477 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf else}\\
478 %\hspace*{1.8cm}\emph{Update $a^j_{ik}$; prepare data for IP~Algorithm;}\\
479 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{$\left\{\left(X_{1},\dots,X_{l},\dots,X_{K}\right)\right\}$ = Execute Integer Program Algorithm($K$);}\\
480 %\hspace*{1.8cm} \emph{K.PreviousSize = K.CurrentSize;}\\
481 %\hspace*{1.2cm} {\bf end}\\
482 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{$s_k.status$ = COMMUNICATION;}\\
483 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Send $ActiveSleep()$ to each node $l$ in subregion;}\\
484 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Update $RE_k $;}\\
485 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf end}\\
486 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf else}\\
487 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{$s_k.status$ = LISTENING;}\\
488 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader;}\\
489 %\hspace*{1.2cm}\emph{Update $RE_k $;}\\
490 %\hspace*{0.6cm} {\bf end}\\
493 %\hspace*{0.6cm} \emph{Exclude $s_k$ from entering in the current sensing stage;}\\
498 In this algorithm, $K.CurrentSize$ and $K.PreviousSize$ respectively represent
499 the current number and the previous number of living nodes in the subnetwork of
500 the subregion. At the beginning of the first period $K.PreviousSize$ is
501 initialized to zero. Initially, the sensor node checks its remaining energy
502 $RE_k$, which must be greater than a threshold $E_{th}$ in order to participate
503 in the current period. Each sensor node determines its position and its
504 subregion using an embedded GPS or a location discovery algorithm. After that,
505 all the sensors collect position coordinates, remaining energy, sensor node ID,
506 and the number of their one-hop live neighbors during the information exchange.
507 The sensors inside a same region cooperate to elect a leader. The selection
508 criteria for the leader are (in order of priority):
510 \item larger number of neighbors;
511 \item larger remaining energy;
512 \item and then in case of equality, larger index.
514 Once chosen, the leader collects information to formulate and solve the integer
515 program which allows to construct the set of active sensors in the sensing
518 \section{Perimeter-based Coverage Problem Formulation}
521 In this section, the perimeter-based coverage problem is mathematically
522 formulated. It has been proved to be a NP-hard problem
523 by \citep{doi:10.1155/2010/926075}. Authors study the coverage of the perimeter
524 of a large object requiring to be monitored. For the proposed formulation in
525 this paper, the large object to be monitored is the sensor itself (or more
526 precisely its sensing area).
528 The following notations are used throughout the section.
530 First, the following sets:
532 \item $S$ represents the set of sensor nodes;
533 \item $A \subseteq S $ is the subset of alive sensors;
534 \item $I_j$ designates the set of coverage intervals (CI) obtained for
537 $I_j$ refers to the set of coverage intervals which have been defined according
538 to the method introduced in subsection~\ref{CI}. For a coverage interval $i$,
539 let $a^j_{ik}$ denote the indicator function of whether sensor~$k$ is involved
540 in coverage interval~$i$ of sensor~$j$, that is:
544 1 & \mbox{if sensor $k$ is involved in the } \\
545 & \mbox{coverage interval $i$ of sensor $j$}, \\
546 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
549 Note that $a^k_{ik}=1$ by definition of the interval.
551 Second, several variables are defined. Hence, each binary variable $X_{k}$
552 determines the activation of sensor $k$ in the sensing phase ($X_k=1$ if the
553 sensor $k$ is active or 0 otherwise). $M^j_i$ is a variable which measures the
554 undercoverage for the coverage interval $i$ corresponding to sensor~$j$. In the
555 same way, the overcoverage for the same coverage interval is given by the
558 To sustain a level of coverage equal to $l$ all along the perimeter of sensor
559 $j$, at least $l$ sensors involved in each coverage interval $i \in I_j$ of
560 sensor $j$ have to be active. According to the previous notations, the number
561 of active sensors in the coverage interval $i$ of sensor $j$ is given by
562 $\sum_{k \in A} a^j_{ik} X_k$. To extend the network lifetime, the objective is
563 to activate a minimal number of sensors in each period to ensure the desired
564 coverage level. As the number of alive sensors decreases, it becomes impossible
565 to reach the desired level of coverage for all coverage intervals. Therefore
566 variables $M^j_i$ and $V^j_i$ are introduced as a measure of the deviation
567 between the desired number of active sensors in a coverage interval and the
568 effective number. And we try to minimize these deviations, first to force the
569 activation of a minimal number of sensors to ensure the desired coverage level,
570 and if the desired level cannot be completely satisfied, to reach a coverage
571 level as close as possible to the desired one.
573 The coverage optimization problem can then be mathematically expressed as follows:
576 \text{Minimize } & \sum_{j \in S} \sum_{i \in I_j} (\alpha^j_i ~ M^j_i + \beta^j_i ~ V^j_i ) \\
577 \text{Subject to:} & \\
578 & \sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) + M^j_i \geq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S \\
579 & \sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) - V^j_i \leq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S \\
580 & X_{k} \in \{0,1\}, \forall k \in A \\
581 & M^j_i, V^j_i \in \mathbb{R}^{+}
588 %\min \sum_{j \in S} \sum_{i \in I_j} (\alpha^j_i ~ M^j_i + \beta^j_i ~ V^j_i ) & \\
589 %\textrm{subject to :} &\\
590 %\sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) + M^j_i \geq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S\\
591 %\sum_{k \in A} ( a^j_{ik} ~ X_{k}) - V^j_i \leq l \quad \forall i \in I_j, \forall j \in S\\
592 %X_{k} \in \{0,1\}, \forall k \in A \\
593 %M^j_i, V^j_i \in \mathbb{R}^{+}
598 If a given level of coverage $l$ is required for one sensor, the sensor is said
599 to be undercovered (respectively overcovered) if the level of coverage of one of
600 its CI is less (respectively greater) than $l$. If the sensor $j$ is
601 undercovered, there exists at least one of its CI (say $i$) for which the number
602 of active sensors (denoted by $l^{i}$) covering this part of the perimeter is
603 less than $l$ and in this case : $M_{i}^{j}=l-l^{i}$, $V_{i}^{j}=0$. Conversely,
604 if the sensor $j$ is overcovered, there exists at least one of its CI (say $i$)
605 for which the number of active sensors (denoted by $l^{i}$) covering this part
606 of the perimeter is greater than $l$ and in this case: $M_{i}^{j}=0$,
609 $\alpha^j_i$ and $\beta^j_i$ are nonnegative weights selected according to the
610 relative importance of satisfying the associated level of coverage. For example,
611 weights associated with coverage intervals of a specified part of a region may
612 be given by a relatively larger magnitude than weights associated with another
613 region. This kind of mixed-integer program is inspired from the model developed
614 for brachytherapy treatment planning for optimizing dose distribution
615 \citep{0031-9155-44-1-012}. The choice of the values for variables $\alpha$ and
616 $\beta$ should be made according to the needs of the application. $\alpha$
617 should be large enough to prevent undercoverage and so to reach the highest
618 possible coverage ratio. $\beta$ should be large enough to prevent overcoverage
619 and so to activate a minimum number of sensors. The mixed-integer program must
620 be solved by the leader in each subregion at the beginning of each sensing
621 phase, whenever the environment has changed (new leader, death of some sensors).
622 Note that the number of constraints in the model is constant (constraints of
623 coverage expressed for all sensors), whereas the number of variables $X_k$
624 decreases over periods, since only alive sensors (sensors with enough energy to
625 be alive during one sensing phase) are considered in the model.
627 \section{Performance Evaluation and Analysis}
628 \label{sec:Simulation Results and Analysis}
630 \subsection{Simulation Settings}
632 The WSN area of interest is supposed to be divided into 16~regular subregions
633 and we use the same energy consumption model as in our previous
634 work~\citep{Idrees2}. Table~\ref{table3} gives the chosen parameters settings.
637 \tbl{Relevant parameters for network initialization \label{table3}}{
641 Parameter & Value \\ [0.5ex]
643 % inserts single horizontal line
644 Sensing field & $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ \\
645 WSN size & 100, 150, 200, 250, and 300~nodes \\
646 Initial energy & in range 500-700~Joules \\
647 Sensing period & duration of 60 minutes \\
648 $E_{th}$ & 36~Joules \\
651 $\alpha^j_i$ & 0.6 \\
656 To obtain experimental results which are relevant, simulations with five
657 different node densities going from 100 to 300~nodes were performed considering
658 each time 25~randomly generated networks. The nodes are deployed on a field of
659 interest of $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ in such a way that they cover the field with a
660 high coverage ratio. Each node has an initial energy level, in Joules, which is
661 randomly drawn in the interval $[500-700]$. If its energy provision reaches a
662 value below the threshold $E_{th}=36$~Joules, the minimum energy needed for a
663 node to stay active during one period, it will no longer participate in the
664 coverage task. This value corresponds to the energy needed by the sensing phase,
665 obtained by multiplying the energy consumed in the active state (9.72 mW) with
666 the time in seconds for one period (3600 seconds), and adding the energy for the
667 pre-sensing phases. According to the interval of initial energy, a sensor may
668 be active during at most 20 periods.
670 The values of $\alpha^j_i$ and $\beta^j_i$ have been chosen to ensure a good
671 network coverage and a longer WSN lifetime. Higher priority is given to the
672 undercoverage (by setting the $\alpha^j_i$ with a larger value than $\beta^j_i$)
673 so as to prevent the non-coverage for the interval~$i$ of the sensor~$j$. On
674 the other hand, $\beta^j_i$ is assigned to a value which is slightly lower so as
675 to minimize the number of active sensor nodes which contribute in covering the
676 interval. Subsection~\ref{sec:Impact} investigates more deeply how the values of
677 both parameters affect the performance of PeCO protocol.
679 The following performance metrics are used to evaluate the efficiency of the
682 \item {\bf Network Lifetime}: the lifetime is defined as the time elapsed until
683 the coverage ratio falls below a fixed threshold. $Lifetime_{95}$ and
684 $Lifetime_{50}$ denote, respectively, the amount of time during which is
685 guaranteed a level of coverage greater than $95\%$ and $50\%$. The WSN can
686 fulfill the expected monitoring task until all its nodes have depleted their
687 energy or if the network is no more connected. This last condition is crucial
688 because without network connectivity a sensor may not be able to send to a
689 base station an event it has sensed.
690 \item {\bf Coverage Ratio (CR)} : it measures how well the WSN is able to
691 observe the area of interest. In our case, the sensor field is discretized as
692 a regular grid, which yields the following equation:
695 \mbox{CR}(\%) = \frac{\mbox{$n$}}{\mbox{$N$}} \times 100
697 where $n$ is the number of covered grid points by active sensors of every
698 subregions during the current sensing phase and $N$ is total number of grid
699 points in the sensing field. A layout of $N~=~51~\times~26~=~1326$~grid points
700 is considered in the simulations.
701 \item {\bf Active Sensors Ratio (ASR)}: a major objective of our protocol is to
702 activate as few nodes as possible, in order to minimize the communication
703 overhead and maximize the WSN lifetime. The active sensors ratio is defined as
707 \mbox{ASR}(\%) = \frac{\sum\limits_{r=1}^R \mbox{$|A_r^p|$}}{\mbox{$|J|$}} \times 100
709 where $|A_r^p|$ is the number of active sensors in the subregion $r$ in the
710 sensing period~$p$, $R$ is the number of subregions, and $|J|$ is the number
711 of sensors in the network.
712 \item {\bf Energy Consumption (EC)}: energy consumption can be seen as the total
713 energy consumed by the sensors during $Lifetime_{95}$ or $Lifetime_{50}$,
714 divided by the number of periods. The value of EC is computed according to
718 \mbox{EC} = \frac{\sum\limits_{p=1}^{P} \left( E^{\mbox{com}}_p+E^{\mbox{list}}_p+E^{\mbox{comp}}_p
719 + E^{a}_p+E^{s}_p \right)}{P},
721 where $P$ corresponds to the number of periods. The total energy consumed by
722 the sensors comes through taking into consideration four main energy
723 factors. The first one, denoted $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{com}}_p$, represents the
724 energy consumption spent by all the nodes for wireless communications during
725 period $p$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{list}}_p$, the next factor, corresponds to
726 the energy consumed by the sensors in LISTENING status before receiving the
727 decision to go active or sleep in period $p$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{comp}}_p$
728 refers to the energy needed by all the leader nodes to solve the integer
729 program during a period (COMPUTATION status). Finally, $E^a_{p}$ and
730 $E^s_{p}$ indicate the energy consumed by the WSN during the sensing phase
731 ({\it active} and {\it sleeping} nodes).
734 \subsection{Simulation Results}
736 In order to assess and analyze the performance of our protocol we have
737 implemented PeCO protocol in OMNeT++~\citep{varga} simulator. The simulations
738 were run on a DELL laptop with an Intel Core~i3~2370~M (1.8~GHz) processor (2
739 cores) whose MIPS (Million Instructions Per Second) rate is equal to 35330. To
740 be consistent with the use of a sensor node based on Atmels AVR ATmega103L
741 microcontroller (6~MHz) having a MIPS rate equal to 6, the original execution
742 time on the laptop is multiplied by 2944.2 $\left(\frac{35330}{2} \times
743 \frac{1}{6} \right)$. Energy consumption is calculated according to the power
744 consumption values, in milliWatt per second, given in Table~\ref{tab:EC}
745 based on the energy model proposed in \citep{ChinhVu}.
747 % Questions on energy consumption calculation
748 % 1 - How did you compute the value for COMPUTATION status ?
749 % 2 - I have checked the paper of Chinh T. Vu (2006) and I wonder
750 % why you completely deleted the energy due to the sensing range ?
751 % => You should have use a fixed value for the sensing rangge Rs (5 meter)
752 % => for all the nodes to compute f(Ri), which would have lead to energy values
756 \caption{Energy consumption}
758 \begin{tabular}{|l||cccc|}
760 {\bf Sensor status} & MCU & Radio & Sensor & {\it Power (mW)} \\
762 LISTENING & On & On & On & 20.05 \\
763 ACTIVE & On & Off & On & 9.72 \\
764 SLEEP & Off & Off & Off & 0.02 \\
765 COMPUTATION & On & On & On & 26.83 \\
767 \multicolumn{4}{|l}{Energy needed to send or receive a 2-bit content message} & 0.515 \\
772 The modeling language for Mathematical Programming (AMPL)~\citep{AMPL} is used
773 to generate the integer program instance in a standard format, which is then
774 read and solved by the optimization solver GLPK (GNU linear Programming Kit
775 available in the public domain) \citep{glpk} through a Branch-and-Bound method.
777 % No discussion about the execution of GLPK on a sensor ?
779 Besides PeCO, three other protocols will be evaluated for comparison
780 purposes. The first one, called DESK, is a fully distributed coverage algorithm
781 proposed by \citep{ChinhVu}. The second one, called
782 GAF~\citep{xu2001geography}, consists in dividing the monitoring area into fixed
783 squares. Then, during the decision phase, in each square, one sensor is chosen
784 to remain active during the sensing phase. The last one, the DiLCO
785 protocol~\citep{Idrees2}, is an improved version of a research work we presented
786 in~\citep{idrees2014coverage}. Let us notice that PeCO and DiLCO protocols are
787 based on the same framework. In particular, the choice for the simulations of a
788 partitioning in 16~subregions was made because it corresponds to the
789 configuration producing the best results for DiLCO. The protocols are
790 distinguished from one another by the formulation of the integer program
791 providing the set of sensors which have to be activated in each sensing
792 phase. DiLCO protocol tries to satisfy the coverage of a set of primary points,
793 whereas PeCO protocol objective is to reach a desired level of coverage for each
794 sensor perimeter. In our experimentations, we chose a level of coverage equal to
797 \subsubsection{Coverage Ratio}
799 Figure~\ref{figure5} shows the average coverage ratio for 200 deployed nodes
800 obtained with the four protocols. DESK, GAF, and DiLCO provide a slightly better
801 coverage ratio with respectively 99.99\%, 99.91\%, and 99.02\%, compared to the
802 98.76\% produced by PeCO for the first periods. This is due to the fact that at
803 the beginning PeCO protocol puts to sleep status more redundant sensors (which
804 slightly decreases the coverage ratio), while the three other protocols activate
805 more sensor nodes. Later, when the number of periods is beyond~70, it clearly
806 appears that PeCO provides a better coverage ratio and keeps a coverage ratio
807 greater than 50\% for longer periods (15 more compared to DiLCO, 40 more
808 compared to DESK). The energy saved by PeCO in the early periods allows later a
809 substantial increase of the coverage performance.
814 \includegraphics[scale=0.5] {figure5.eps}
815 \caption{Coverage ratio for 200 deployed nodes.}
819 \subsubsection{Active Sensors Ratio}
821 Having the less active sensor nodes in each period is essential to minimize the
822 energy consumption and thus to maximize the network lifetime.
823 Figure~\ref{figure6} shows the average active nodes ratio for 200 deployed
824 nodes. We observe that DESK and GAF have 30.36~\% and 34.96~\% active nodes for
825 the first fourteen rounds, and DiLCO and PeCO protocols compete perfectly with
826 only 17.92~\% and 20.16~\% active nodes during the same time interval. As the
827 number of periods increases, PeCO protocol has a lower number of active nodes in
828 comparison with the three other approaches and exhibits a slow decrease, while
829 keeping a greater coverage ratio as shown in Figure \ref{figure5}.
833 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure6.eps}
834 \caption{Active sensors ratio for 200 deployed nodes.}
838 \subsubsection{Energy Consumption}
840 The effect of the energy consumed by the WSN during the communication,
841 computation, listening, active, and sleep status is studied for different
842 network densities and the four approaches compared. Figures~\ref{figure7}(a)
843 and (b) illustrate the energy consumption for different network sizes and for
844 $Lifetime95$ and $Lifetime50$. The results show that PeCO protocol is the most
845 competitive from the energy consumption point of view. As shown by both figures,
846 PeCO consumes much less energy than the other methods. One might think that the
847 resolution of the integer program is too costly in energy, but the results show
848 that it is very beneficial to lose a bit of time in the selection of sensors to
849 activate. Indeed the optimization program allows to reduce significantly the
850 number of active sensors and so the energy consumption while keeping a good
851 coverage level. Let us notice that the energy overhead when increasing network
852 size is the lowest with PeCO.
856 \begin{tabular}{@{}cr@{}}
857 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure7a.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(a)} \\
858 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure7b.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(b)}
860 \caption{Energy consumption per period for (a)~$Lifetime_{95}$ and (b)~$Lifetime_{50}$.}
864 \subsubsection{Network Lifetime}
866 We observe the superiority of both PeCO and DiLCO protocols in comparison with
867 the two other approaches in prolonging the network lifetime. In
868 Figures~\ref{figure8}(a) and (b), $Lifetime95$ and $Lifetime50$ are shown for
869 different network sizes. As can be seen in these figures, the lifetime
870 increases with the size of the network, and it is clearly largest for DiLCO and
871 PeCO protocols. For instance, for a network of 300~sensors and coverage ratio
872 greater than 50\%, we can see on Figure~\ref{figure8}(b) that the lifetime is
873 about twice longer with PeCO compared to DESK protocol. The performance
874 difference is more obvious in Figure~\ref{figure8}(b) than in
875 Figure~\ref{figure8}(a) because the gain induced by our protocols increases with
876 time, and the lifetime with a coverage over 50\% is far longer than with 95\%.
880 \begin{tabular}{@{}cr@{}}
881 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure8a.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(a)} \\
882 \includegraphics[scale=0.5]{figure8b.eps} & \raisebox{2.75cm}{(b)}
884 \caption{Network Lifetime for (a)~$Lifetime_{95}$ and (b)~$Lifetime_{50}$.}
888 Figure~\ref{figure9} compares the lifetime coverage of DiLCO and PeCO protocols
889 for different coverage ratios. We denote by Protocol/50, Protocol/80,
890 Protocol/85, Protocol/90, and Protocol/95 the amount of time during which the
891 network can satisfy an area coverage greater than $50\%$, $80\%$, $85\%$,
892 $90\%$, and $95\%$ respectively, where the term Protocol refers to DiLCO or
893 PeCO. Indeed there are applications that do not require a 100\% coverage of the
894 area to be monitored. PeCO might be an interesting method since it achieves a
895 good balance between a high level coverage ratio and network lifetime. PeCO
896 always outperforms DiLCO for the three lower coverage ratios, moreover the
897 improvements grow with the network size. DiLCO is better for coverage ratios
898 near 100\%, but in that case PeCO is not ineffective for the smallest network
902 \centering \includegraphics[scale=0.55]{figure9.eps}
903 \caption{Network lifetime for different coverage ratios.}
907 \subsubsection{Impact of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ on PeCO's performance}
910 Table~\ref{my-labelx} shows network lifetime results for different values of
911 $\alpha$ and $\beta$, and a network size equal to 200 sensor nodes. On the one
912 hand, the choice of $\beta \gg \alpha$ prevents the overcoverage, and so limit
913 the activation of a large number of sensors, but as $\alpha$ is low, some areas
914 may be poorly covered. This explains the results obtained for {\it Lifetime50}
915 with $\beta \gg \alpha$: a large number of periods with low coverage ratio. On
916 the other hand, when we choose $\alpha \gg \beta$, we favor the coverage even if
917 some areas may be overcovered, so high coverage ratio is reached, but a large
918 number of sensors are activated to achieve this goal. Therefore network
919 lifetime is reduced. The choice $\alpha=0.6$ and $\beta=0.4$ seems to achieve
920 the best compromise between lifetime and coverage ratio. That explains why we
921 have chosen this setting for the experiments presented in the previous
924 %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 $Lifetime_{95}$.
928 \caption{The impact of $\alpha$ and $\beta$ on PeCO's performance}
930 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|}
932 $\alpha$ & $\beta$ & $Lifetime_{50}$ & $Lifetime_{95}$ \\ \hline
933 0.0 & 1.0 & 151 & 0 \\ \hline
934 0.1 & 0.9 & 145 & 0 \\ \hline
935 0.2 & 0.8 & 140 & 0 \\ \hline
936 0.3 & 0.7 & 134 & 0 \\ \hline
937 0.4 & 0.6 & 125 & 0 \\ \hline
938 0.5 & 0.5 & 118 & 30 \\ \hline
939 {\bf 0.6} & {\bf 0.4} & {\bf 94} & {\bf 57} \\ \hline
940 0.7 & 0.3 & 97 & 49 \\ \hline
941 0.8 & 0.2 & 90 & 52 \\ \hline
942 0.9 & 0.1 & 77 & 50 \\ \hline
943 1.0 & 0.0 & 60 & 44 \\ \hline
948 \section{Conclusion and Future Works}
949 \label{sec:Conclusion and Future Works}
951 In this paper we have studied the problem of perimeter coverage optimization in
952 WSNs. We have designed a new protocol, called Perimeter-based Coverage
953 Optimization, which schedules nodes' activities (wake up and sleep stages) with
954 the objective of maintaining a good coverage ratio while maximizing the network
955 lifetime. This protocol is applied in a distributed way in regular subregions
956 obtained after partitioning the area of interest in a preliminary step. It works
957 in periods and is based on the resolution of an integer program to select the
958 subset of sensors operating in active status for each period. Our work is
959 original in so far as it proposes for the first time an integer program
960 scheduling the activation of sensors based on their perimeter coverage level,
961 instead of using a set of targets/points to be covered. Several simulations have
962 been carried out to evaluate the proposed protocol. The simulation results show
963 that PeCO is more energy-efficient than other approaches, with respect to
964 lifetime, coverage ratio, active sensors ratio, and energy consumption.
966 We plan to extend our framework so that the schedules are planned for multiple
967 sensing periods. We also want to improve the integer program to take into
968 account heterogeneous sensors from both energy and node characteristics point of
969 views. Finally, it would be interesting to implement PeCO protocol using a
970 sensor-testbed to evaluate it in real world applications.
972 \bibliographystyle{gENO}
973 \bibliography{biblio} %articleeo