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25 %\title{Authors' Instructions \subtitle{Preparation of Camera-Ready Contributions to SCITEPRESS Proceedings} }
27 \title{Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization Protocol \\in Wireless Sensor Networks}
29 \author{\authorname{Ali Kadhum Idrees, Karine Deschinkel, Michel Salomon, and Rapha\"el Couturier}
30 \affiliation{FEMTO-ST Institute, UMR 6174 CNRS, University of Franche-Comt\'e, Belfort, France}
31 %\affiliation{\sup{2}Department of Computing, Main University, MySecondTown, MyCountry}
32 \email{ali.idness@edu.univ-fcomte.fr, $\lbrace$karine.deschinkel, michel.salomon, raphael.couturier$\rbrace$@univ-fcomte.fr}
33 %\email{\{f\_author, s\_author\}@ips.xyz.edu, t\_author@dc.mu.edu}
36 \keywords{Wireless Sensor Networks, Area Coverage, Network lifetime,
37 Optimization, Scheduling.}
39 \abstract{ One of the main research challenges faced in Wireless Sensor Networks
40 (WSNs) is to preserve continuously and effectively the coverage of an area (or
41 region) of interest to be monitored, while simultaneously preventing as much
42 as possible a network failure due to battery-depleted nodes. In this paper we
43 propose a protocol, called Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization protocol
44 (DiLCO), which maintains the coverage and improves the lifetime of a wireless
45 sensor network. As a first step we partition the area of interest into
46 subregions using a classical divide-and-conquer method. Our DiLCO protocol is
47 then distributed on the sensor nodes in each subregion in a second step. To
48 fulfill our objective, the proposed protocol combines two effective
49 techniques: a leader election in each subregion, followed by an
50 optimization-based node activity scheduling performed by each elected leader.
51 This two-step process takes place periodically, in order to choose a small set
52 of nodes remaining active for sensing during a time slot. Each set is built
53 to ensure coverage at a low energy cost, allowing to optimize the network
54 lifetime. More precisely, a period consists of four phases: (i)~Information
55 Exchange, (ii)~Leader Election, (iii)~Decision, and (iv)~Sensing. The
56 decision process, which results in an activity scheduling vector, is carried
57 out by a leader node through the solving of an integer program. In comparison
58 with some other protocols, the simulations done using the discrete event
59 simulator OMNeT++ show that our approach is able to increase the WSN lifetime
60 and provides improved coverage performance. }
62 \onecolumn \maketitle \normalsize \vfill
64 \section{\uppercase{Introduction}}
65 \label{sec:introduction}
68 Energy efficiency is a crucial issue in wireless sensor networks since sensory
69 consumption, in order to maximize the network lifetime, represents the major
70 difficulty when designing WSNs. As a consequence, one of the scientific research
71 challenges in WSNs, which has been addressed by a large amount of literature
72 during the last few years, is the design of energy efficient approaches for
73 coverage and connectivity~\cite{conti2014mobile}. Coverage reflects how well a
74 sensor field is monitored. On the one hand we want to monitor the area of
75 interest in the most efficient way~\cite{Nayak04}. On the other hand we want to
76 use as less energy as possible. Sensor nodes are battery-powered with no means
77 of recharging or replacing, usually due to environmental (hostile or unpractical
78 environments) or cost reasons. Therefore, it is desired that the WSNs are
79 deployed with high densities so as to exploit the overlapping sensing regions of
80 some sensor nodes to save energy by turning off some of them during the sensing
81 phase to prolong the network lifetime.
83 In this paper we design a protocol that focuses on the area coverage problem
84 with the objective of maximizing the network lifetime. Our proposition, the
85 Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization (DILCO) protocol, maintains the
86 coverage and improves the lifetime in WSNs. The area of interest is first
87 divided into subregions using a divide-and-conquer algorithm and an activity
88 scheduling for sensor nodes is then planned by the elected leader in each
89 subregion. In fact, the nodes in a subregion can be seen as a cluster where each
90 node sends sensing data to the cluster head or the sink node. Furthermore, the
91 activities in a subregion/cluster can continue even if another cluster stops due
92 to too many node failures. Our DiLCO protocol considers periods, where a period
93 starts with a discovery phase to exchange information between sensors of a same
94 subregion, in order to choose in a suitable manner a sensor node (the leader) to
95 carry out the coverage strategy. In each subregion the activation of the sensors
96 for the sensing phase of the current period is obtained by solving an integer
97 program. The resulting activation vector is broadcasted by a leader to every
98 node of its subregion.
100 The remainder of the paper continues with Section~\ref{sec:Literature Review}
101 where a review of some related works is presented. The next section describes
102 the DiLCO protocol, followed in Section~\ref{cp} by the coverage model
103 formulation which is used to schedule the activation of
104 sensors. Section~\ref{sec:Simulation Results and Analysis} shows the simulation
105 results. The paper ends with conclusions and some suggestions for further work
106 in Section~\ref{sec:Conclusion and Future Works}.
108 \section{\uppercase{Literature Review}}
109 \label{sec:Literature Review}
111 \noindent In this section, we summarize some related works regarding coverage
112 problem and distinguish our DiLCO protocol from the works presented in the
115 The most discussed coverage problems in literature
116 can be classified into three types \cite{li2013survey}: area coverage (where
117 every point inside an area is to be monitored), target coverage (where the main
118 objective is to cover only a finite number of discrete points called targets),
119 and barrier coverage (to prevent intruders from entering into the region of
121 {\it In DiLCO protocol, the area coverage, i.e. the coverage of every point in
122 the sensing region, is transformed to the coverage of a fraction of points
123 called primary points. }
125 The major approach to extend network lifetime while preserving coverage is to
126 divide/organize the sensors into a suitable number of set covers (disjoint or
127 non-disjoint) where each set completely covers a region of interest and to
128 activate these set covers successively. The network activity can be planned in
129 advance and scheduled for the entire network lifetime or organized in periods,
130 and the set of active sensor nodes is decided at the beginning of each period.
131 Active node selection is determined based on the problem requirements (e.g. area
132 monitoring, connectivity, power efficiency). Different methods have been
133 proposed in literature.
134 {\it DiLCO protocol works in periods, where each period contains a preliminary
135 phase for information exchange and decisions, followed by a sensing phase
136 where one cover set is in charge of the sensing task.}
138 Various approaches, including centralized, distributed, and localized
139 algorithms, have been proposed to extend the network lifetime.
140 %For instance, in order to hide the occurrence of faults, or the sudden unavailability of
141 %sensor nodes, some distributed algorithms have been developed in~\cite{Gallais06,Tian02,Ye03,Zhang05,HeinzelmanCB02}.
142 In distributed algorithms~\cite{yangnovel,ChinhVu,qu2013distributed},
143 information is disseminated throughout the network and sensors decide
144 cooperatively by communicating with their neighbors which of them will remain in
145 sleep mode for a certain period of time. The centralized
146 algorithms~\cite{cardei2005improving,zorbas2010solving,pujari2011high} always
147 provide nearly or close to optimal solution since the algorithm has global view
148 of the whole network, but such a method has the disadvantage of requiring high
149 communication costs, since the node (located at the base station) making the
150 decision needs information from all the sensor nodes in the area.
152 A large variety of coverage scheduling algorithms have been proposed. Many of
153 the existing algorithms, dealing with the maximization of the number of cover
154 sets, are heuristics. These heuristics involve the construction of a cover set
155 by including in priority the sensor nodes which cover critical targets, that is
156 to say targets that are covered by the smallest number of sensors. Other
157 approaches are based on mathematical programming formulations and dedicated
158 techniques (solving with a branch-and-bound algorithms available in optimization
159 solver). The problem is formulated as an optimization problem (maximization of
160 the lifetime or number of cover sets) under target coverage and energy
161 constraints. Column generation techniques, well-known and widely practiced
162 techniques for solving linear programs with too many variables, have been also
163 used~\cite{castano2013column,rossi2012exact,deschinkel2012column}.
165 % ***** Part which must be rewritten - Start
167 % Start of Ali's papers catalog => there's no link between them or with our work
168 % (use of subregions; optimization based method; etc.)
170 Diongue and Thiare~\cite{diongue2013alarm} proposed an energy aware sleep
171 scheduling algorithm for lifetime maximization in wireless sensor networks
172 (ALARM). The proposed approach permits to schedule redundant nodes according to
173 the weibull distribution. This work did not analyze the ALARM scheme under the
176 Shi et al.~\cite{shi2009} modeled the Area Coverage Problem (ACP), which will be
177 changed into a set coverage problem. By using this model, they proposed an
178 Energy-Efficient central-Scheduling greedy algorithm, which can reduces energy
179 consumption and increases network lifetime, by selecting a appropriate subset of
180 sensor nodes to support the networks periodically.
182 In ~\cite{chenait2013distributed}, the authors presented a coverage-guaranteed
183 distributed sleep/wake scheduling scheme so ass to prolong network lifetime
184 while guaranteeing network coverage. This scheme mitigates scheduling process to
185 be more stable by avoiding useless transitions between states without affecting
186 the coverage level required by the application.
188 The work in~\cite{cheng2014achieving} presented a unified sensing architecture
189 for duty cycled sensor networks, called uSense, which comprises three ideas:
190 Asymmetric Architecture, Generic Switching and Global Scheduling. The objective
191 is to provide a flexible and efficient coverage in sensor networks.
193 In~\cite{ling2009energy}, the lifetime of a sensor node is divided into
194 epochs. At each epoch, the base station deduces the current sensing coverage
195 requirement from application or user request. It then applies the heuristic
196 algorithm in order to produce the set of active nodes which take the mission of
197 sensing during the current epoch. After that, the produced schedule is sent to
198 the sensor nodes in the network.
200 % What is the link between the previous work and this paragraph about DiLCO ?
202 {\it In DiLCO protocol, the area coverage is divided into several smaller
203 subregions, and in each of which, a node called the leader is on charge for
204 selecting the active sensors for the current period.}
206 Yang et al.~\cite{yang2014energy} investigated full area coverage problem under
207 the probabilistic sensing model in the sensor networks. They have studied the
208 relationship between the coverage of two adjacent points mathematically and then
209 convert the problem of full area coverage into point coverage problem. They
210 proposed $\varepsilon$-full area coverage optimization (FCO) algorithm to select
211 a subset of sensors to provide probabilistic area coverage dynamically so as to
212 extend the network lifetime.
214 The work proposed by \cite{qu2013distributed} considers the coverage problem in
215 WSNs where each sensor has variable sensing radius. The final objective is to
216 maximize the network coverage lifetime in WSNs.
218 % Same remark, no link with the two previous citations...
219 {\it In DiLCO protocol, each leader, in each subregion, solves an integer
220 program with a double objective consisting in minimizing the overcoverage and
221 limiting the undercoverage. This program is inspired from the work of
222 \cite{pedraza2006} where the objective is to maximize the number of cover
225 % ***** Part which must be rewritten - End
229 Some algorithms have been developed in ~\cite{yang2014energy,ChinhVu,vashistha2007energy,deschinkel2012column,shi2009,qu2013distributed,ling2009energy,xin2009area,cheng2014achieving,ling2009energy} to solve the area coverage problem so as to preserve coverage and prolong the network lifetime.
232 Yang et al.~\cite{yang2014energy} investigated full area coverage problem
233 under the probabilistic sensing model in the sensor networks. They have studied the relationship between the
234 coverage of two adjacent points mathematically and then convert the problem of full area coverage into point coverage problem. They proposed $\varepsilon$-full area coverage optimization (FCO) algorithm to select a subset
235 of sensors to provide probabilistic area coverage dynamically so as to extend the network lifetime.
238 Vu et al.~\cite{ChinhVu} proposed a localized and distributed greedy algorithm named DESK for generating non-disjoint cover sets which provide the k-area coverage for the whole network.
241 Qu et al.~\cite{qu2013distributed} developed a distributed algorithm using adjustable sensing sensors
242 for maintaining the full coverage of such sensor networks. The
243 algorithm contains two major parts: the first part aims at
244 providing $100\%$ coverage and the second part aims at saving
245 energy by decreasing the sensing radius.
247 Shi et al.~\cite{shi2009} modeled the Area Coverage Problem (ACP), which will be changed into a set coverage
248 problem. By using this model, they are proposed an Energy-Efficient central-Scheduling greedy algorithm, which can reduces energy consumption and increases network lifetime, by selecting a appropriate subset of sensor nodes to support the networks periodically.
250 The work in~\cite{cheng2014achieving} presented a unified sensing architecture for duty cycled sensor networks, called uSense, which comprises three ideas: Asymmetric Architecture, Generic Switching and Global Scheduling. The objective is to provide a flexible and efficient coverage in sensor networks.
252 In~\cite{ling2009energy}, the lifetime of
253 a sensor node is divided into epochs. At each epoch, the
254 base station deduces the current sensing coverage requirement
255 from application or user request. It then applies the heuristic algorithm in order to produce the set of active nodes which take the mission of sensing during the current epoch. After that, the produced schedule is sent to the sensor nodes in the network.
260 The work in ~\cite{vu2009delaunay} considered the area coverage problem for variable sensing radii in WSNs by improving the energy balancing heuristic proposed in ~\cite{wang2007energy} so that the area of interest can be full covered using Delaunay triangulation structure.
262 Diongue and Thiare~\cite{diongue2013alarm} proposed an energy aware sleep scheduling algorithm for lifetime maximization in wireless sensor networks (ALARM). The proposed approach permits to schedule redundant nodes according to the weibull distribution. This work did not analyze the ALARM scheme under the coverage problem.
265 In~\cite{xin2009area}, the authors proposed a circle intersection localized coverage algorithm
266 to maintain connectivity based on loose connectivity critical condition
267 . By using the connected coverage node set, it can maintain network
268 connection in the case which loose condition is not meet.
269 The authors in ~\cite{vashistha2007energy} addressed the full area coverage problem using information
270 coverage. They are proposed a low-complexity heuristic algorithm to obtain full area information covers (FAIC), which they refer to as Grid Based FAIC (GB-FAIC) algorithm. Using these FAICs, they are obtained the optimal schedule for applying the sensing activity of sensor nodes in order to
271 achieve increased sensing lifetime of the network.
278 In \cite{xu2001geography}, Xu et al. proposed a Geographical Adaptive Fidelity (GAF) algorithm, which uses geographic location information to divide the area of interest into fixed square grids. Within each grid, it keeps only one node staying awake to take the responsibility of sensing and communication.
280 The main contributions of our DiLCO Protocol can be summarized as follows:
281 (1) The distributed optimization over the subregions in the area of interest,
282 (2) The distributed dynamic leader election at each period by each sensor node in the subregion,
283 (3) The primary point coverage model to represent each sensor node in the network,
284 (4) The activity scheduling based optimization on the subregion, which are based on the primary point coverage model to activate as less number as possible of sensor nodes to take the mission of the coverage in each subregion, and (5) The improved energy consumption model.
287 The work presented in~\cite{luo2014parameterized,tian2014distributed} tries to solve the target coverage problem so as to extend the network lifetime since it is easy to verify the coverage status of discreet target.
288 %Je ne comprends pas la phrase ci-dessus
289 The work proposed in~\cite{kim2013maximum} considers the barrier-coverage problem in WSNs. The final goal is to maximize the network lifetime such that any penetration of the intruder is detected.
290 %inutile de parler de ce papier car il concerne barrier coverage
291 In \cite{ChinhVu}, the authors propose a localized and distributed greedy algorithm named DESK for generating non-disjoint cover sets which provide the k-coverage for the whole network.
292 Our Work in~\cite{idrees2014coverage} proposes a coverage optimization protocol to improve the lifetime in heterogeneous energy wireless sensor networks. In this work, the coverage protocol distributed in each sensor node in the subregion but the optimization take place over the the whole subregion. We are considered only distributing the coverage protocol over two subregions.
294 The work presented in ~\cite{Zhang} focuses on a distributed clustering method, which aims to extend the network lifetime, while the coverage is ensured.
296 The work proposed by \cite{qu2013distributed} considers the coverage problem in WSNs where each sensor has variable sensing radius. The final objective is to maximize the network coverage lifetime in WSNs.
300 Casta{\~n}o et al.~\cite{castano2013column} proposed a multilevel approach based on column generation (CG) to extend the network lifetime with connectivity and coverage constraints. They are included two heuristic methods within the CG framework so as to accelerate the solution process.
301 In \cite{diongue2013alarm}, diongue is proposed an energy Aware sLeep scheduling AlgoRithm for lifetime maximization in WSNs (ALARM) algorithm for coverage lifetime maximization in wireless sensor networks. ALARM is sensor node scheduling approach for lifetime maximization in WSNs in which it schedule redundant nodes according to the weibull distribution taking into consideration frequent nodes failure.
302 Yu et al.~\cite{yu2013cwsc} presented a connected k-coverage working sets construction
303 approach (CWSC) to maintain k-coverage and connectivity. This approach try to select the minimum number of connected sensor nodes that can provide k-coverage ($k \geq 1$).
304 In~\cite{cheng2014achieving}, the authors are presented a unified sensing architecture for duty cycled sensor networks, called uSense, which comprises three ideas: Asymmetric Architecture, Generic Switching and Global Scheduling. The objective is to provide a flexible and efficient coverage in sensor networks.
306 In~\cite{yang2013energy}, the authors are investigated full area coverage problem
307 under the probabilistic sensing model in the sensor networks. %They are designed $\varepsilon-$full area coverage optimization (FCO) algorithm to select a subset of sensors to provide probabilistic area coverage dynamically so as to extend the network lifetime.
308 In \cite{xu2001geography}, Xu et al. proposed a Geographical Adaptive Fidelity (GAF) algorithm, which uses geographic location information to divide the area of interest into fixed square grids. Within each grid, it keeps only one node staying awake to take the responsibility of sensing and communication.
310 The main contributions of our DiLCO Protocol can be summarized as follows:
311 (1) The distributed optimization over the subregions in the area of interest,
312 (2) The distributed dynamic leader election at each round by each sensor node in the subregion,
313 (3) The primary point coverage model to represent each sensor node in the network,
314 (4) The activity scheduling based optimization on the subregion, which are based on the primary point coverage model to activate as less number as possible of sensor nodes to take the mission of the coverage in each subregion,
315 (5) The improved energy consumption model.
319 \section{\uppercase{Description of the DiLCO protocol}}
320 \label{sec:The DiLCO Protocol Description}
322 \noindent In this section, we introduce the DiLCO protocol which is distributed
323 on each subregion in the area of interest. It is based on two efficient
324 techniques: network leader election and sensor activity scheduling for coverage
325 preservation and energy conservation, applied periodically to efficiently
326 maximize the lifetime in the network.
327 \iffalse The main features of our DiLCO protocol: i)It divides the area of
328 interest into subregions by using divide-and-conquer concept, ii)It requires
329 only the information of the nodes within the subregion, iii) it divides the
330 network lifetime into rounds, iv)It based on the autonomous distributed decision
331 by the nodes in the subregion to elect the Leader, v)It apply the activity
332 scheduling based optimization on the subregion, vi) it achieves an energy
333 consumption balancing among the nodes in the subregion by selecting different
334 nodes as a leader during the network lifetime, vii) It uses the optimization to
335 select the best representative set of sensors in the subregion by optimize the
336 coverage and the lifetime over the area of interest, viii)It uses our proposed
337 primary point coverage model, which represent the sensing range of the sensor as
338 a set of points, which are used by the our optimization algorithm, ix) It uses a
339 simple energy model that takes communication, sensing and computation energy
340 consumptions into account to evaluate the performance of our protocol.
343 \subsection{Assumptions and models}
345 \noindent We consider a sensor network composed of static nodes distributed
346 independently and uniformly at random. A high density deployment ensures a high
347 coverage ratio of the interested area at the starting. The nodes are supposed to
348 have homogeneous characteristics from a communication and a processing point of
349 view, whereas they have heterogeneous energy provisions. Each node has access
350 to its location thanks, either to a hardware component (like a GPS unit), or a
351 location discovery algorithm.
353 \indent We consider a boolean disk coverage model which is the most widely used
354 sensor coverage model in the literature. Thus, since a sensor has a constant
355 sensing range $R_s$, every space points within a disk centered at a sensor with
356 the radius of the sensing range is said to be covered by this sensor. We also
357 assume that the communication range $R_c \geq 2R_s$. In fact, Zhang and
358 Zhou~\cite{Zhang05} proved that if the transmission range fulfills the previous
359 hypothesis, a complete coverage of a convex area implies connectivity among the
360 working nodes in the active mode.
362 \indent For each sensor we also define a set of points called primary
363 points~\cite{idrees2014coverage} to approximate the area coverage it provides,
364 rather than working with a continuous coverage. Thus, a sensing disk
365 corresponding to a sensor node is covered by its neighboring nodes if all its
366 primary points are covered. Obviously, the approximation of coverage is more or
367 less accurate according to the number of primary points.
370 By knowing the position (point center: ($p_x,p_y$)) of a wireless
371 sensor node and its $R_s$, we calculate the primary points directly
372 based on the proposed model. We use these primary points (that can be
373 increased or decreased if necessary) as references to ensure that the
374 monitored region of interest is covered by the selected set of
375 sensors, instead of using all the points in the area.
377 \indent We can calculate the positions of the selected primary
378 points in the circle disk of the sensing range of a wireless sensor
379 node (see figure~\ref{fig1}) as follows:\\
380 $(p_x,p_y)$ = point center of wireless sensor node\\
382 $X_2=( p_x + R_s * (1), p_y + R_s * (0) )$\\
383 $X_3=( p_x + R_s * (-1), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
384 $X_4=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (1) )$\\
385 $X_5=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (-1 )) $\\
386 $X_6= ( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0)) $\\
387 $X_7=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (0))$\\
388 $X_8=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
389 $X_9=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
390 $X_{10}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
391 $X_{11}=( p_x + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2}), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
392 $X_{12}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{\sqrt{2}}{2})) $\\
393 $X_{13}=( p_x + R_s * (0), p_y + R_s * (\frac{-\sqrt{2}}{2})) $.
399 %\includegraphics[scale=0.20]{fig21.pdf}\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(a)
400 %\includegraphics[scale=0.20]{fig22.pdf}\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(b)
401 \includegraphics[scale=0.25]{principles13.pdf}%\\~ ~ ~ ~ ~(c)
402 %\includegraphics[scale=0.10]{fig25.pdf}\\~ ~ ~(d)
403 %\includegraphics[scale=0.10]{fig26.pdf}\\~ ~ ~(e)
404 %\includegraphics[scale=0.10]{fig27.pdf}\\~ ~ ~(f)
406 \caption{Wireless Sensor Node represented by 13 primary points}
407 %\caption{Wireless Sensor Node represented by (a)5, (b)9 and (c)13 primary points respectively}
413 \subsection{The main idea}
416 \noindent We start by applying a divide-and-conquer algorithm to partition the
417 area of interest into smaller areas called subregions and then our protocol is
418 executed simultaneously in each subregion.
422 \includegraphics[width=75mm]{FirstModel.pdf} % 70mm
423 \caption{DiLCO protocol}
427 As shown in Figure~\ref{fig2}, the proposed DiLCO protocol is a periodic
428 protocol where each period is decomposed into 4~phases: Information Exchange,
429 Leader Election , Decision, and Sensing. For each period there will be exactly
430 one cover set in charge of the sensing task. A periodic scheduling is
431 interesting because it enhances the robustness of the network against node
432 failures. First, a node that has not enough energy to complete a period, or
433 which fails before the decision is taken, will be excluded from the scheduling
434 process. Second, if a node fails later, whereas it was supposed to sense the
435 region of interest, it will only affect the quality of coverage until the
436 definition of a new cover set in the next period. Constraints, like the energy
437 consumption, can be easily taken into consideration since the sensors can update
438 and exchange their information during the first phase. Let us notice that the
439 phases before the sensing one (Information Exchange, Leader Election, and
440 Decision) are energy consuming for all the nodes, even nodes that will not be
441 retained by the leader to keep watch over the corresponding area.
443 During the execution of the DiLCO protocol, two kinds of packets will be used:
444 %\begin{enumerate}[(a)]
446 \item INFO packet: sent by each sensor node to all the nodes inside a same
447 subregion for information exchange.
448 \item ActiveSleep packet: sent by the leader to all the nodes in its subregion
449 to inform them to be stay Active or to go Sleep during the sensing phase.
452 and each sensor node will have five possible status in the network:
453 %\begin{enumerate}[(a)]
455 \item LISTENING: sensor is waiting for a decision (to be active or not);
456 \item COMPUTATION: sensor applies the optimization process as leader;
457 \item ACTIVE: sensor is active;
458 \item SLEEP: sensor is turned off;
459 \item COMMUNICATION: sensor is transmitting or receiving packet.
463 An outline of the protocol implementation is given by Algorithm~\ref{alg:DiLCO}
464 which describes the execution of a period by a node (denoted by $s_j$ for a
465 sensor node indexed by $j$). At the beginning a node checks whether it has
466 enough energy to stay active during the next sensing phase. If yes, it exchanges
467 information with all the other nodes belonging to the same subregion: it
468 collects from each node its position coordinates, remaining energy ($RE_j$), ID,
469 and the number of one-hop neighbors still alive. Once the first phase is
470 completed, the nodes of a subregion choose a leader to take the decision based
471 on the following criteria with decreasing importance: larger number of
472 neighbors, larger remaining energy, and then in case of equality, larger index.
473 After that, if the sensor node is leader, it will execute the integer program
474 algorithm (see Section~\ref{cp}) which provides a set of sensors planned to be
475 active in the next sensing phase. As leader, it will send an Active-Sleep packet
476 to each sensor in the same subregion to indicate it if it has to be active or
477 not. Alternately, if the sensor is not the leader, it will wait for the
478 Active-Sleep packet to know its state for the coming sensing phase.
481 \subsubsection{Information Exchange Phase}
483 Each sensor node $j$ sends its position, remaining energy $RE_j$, and
484 the number of neighbors $NBR_j$ to all wireless sensor nodes in
485 its subregion by using an INFO packet and then listens to the packets
486 sent from other nodes. After that, each node will have information
487 about all the sensor nodes in the subregion. In our model, the
488 remaining energy corresponds to the time that a sensor can live in the
491 \subsubsection{Leader Election Phase}
492 This step includes choosing the Wireless Sensor Node Leader (WSNL),
493 which will be responsible for executing the coverage algorithm. Each
494 subregion in the area of interest will select its own WSNL
495 independently for each round. All the sensor nodes cooperate to
496 select WSNL. The nodes in the same subregion will select the leader
497 based on the received information from all other nodes in the same
498 subregion. The selection criteria in order of priority are: larger
499 number of neighbors, larger remaining energy, and then in case of
500 equality, larger index.
502 \subsubsection{Decision phase}
503 The WSNL will solve an integer program (see section~\ref{cp}) to
504 select which sensors will be activated in the following sensing phase
505 to cover the subregion. WSNL will send Active-Sleep packet to each
506 sensor in the subregion based on the algorithm's results.
509 \subsubsection{Sensing phase}
511 Active sensors in the round will execute their sensing task to preserve maximal
512 coverage in the region of interest. We will assume that the cost of keeping a
513 node awake (or asleep) for sensing task is the same for all wireless sensor
514 nodes in the network. Each sensor will receive an Active-Sleep packet from WSNL
515 informing it to stay awake or to go to sleep for a time equal to the period of
516 sensing until starting a new round. Algorithm 1, which will be executed by each
517 node at the beginning of a round, explains how the Active-Sleep packet is
524 \subsection{DiLCO protocol Algorithm}
525 we first show the pseudo-code of DiLCO protocol, which is executed by each
526 sensor in the subregion and then describe it in more detail. \fi
528 \begin{algorithm}[h!]
529 % \KwIn{all the parameters related to information exchange}
530 % \KwOut{$winer-node$ (: the id of the winner sensor node, which is the leader of current round)}
532 %\emph{Initialize the sensor node and determine it's position and subregion} \;
534 \If{ $RE_j \geq E_{th}$ }{
535 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMMUNICATION}\;
536 \emph{Send $INFO()$ packet to other nodes in the subregion}\;
537 \emph{Wait $INFO()$ packet from other nodes in the subregion}\;
538 %\emph{UPDATE $RE_j$ for every sent or received INFO Packet}\;
539 %\emph{ Collect information and construct the list L for all nodes in the subregion}\;
541 %\If{ the received INFO Packet = No. of nodes in it's subregion -1 }{
542 \emph{LeaderID = Leader election}\;
543 \If{$ s_j.ID = LeaderID $}{
544 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMPUTATION}\;
545 \emph{$\left\{\left(X_{1},\dots,X_{k},\dots,X_{J}\right)\right\}$ =
546 Execute Integer Program Algorithm($J$)}\;
547 \emph{$s_j.status$ = COMMUNICATION}\;
548 \emph{Send $ActiveSleep()$ to each node $k$ in subregion} \;
549 \emph{Update $RE_j $}\;
552 \emph{$s_j.status$ = LISTENING}\;
553 \emph{Wait $ActiveSleep()$ packet from the Leader}\;
554 % \emph{After receiving Packet, Retrieve the schedule and the $T$ rounds}\;
555 \emph{Update $RE_j $}\;
559 \Else { Exclude $s_j$ from entering in the current sensing phase}
562 \caption{DiLCO($s_j$)}
568 The DiLCO protocol work in rounds and executed at each sensor node in the network , each sensor node can still sense data while being in
569 LISTENING mode. Thus, by entering the LISTENING mode at the beginning of each round,
570 sensor nodes still executing sensing task while participating in the leader election and decision phases. More specifically, The DiLCO protocol algorithm works as follow:
571 Initially, the sensor node check it's remaining energy in order to participate in the current round. Each sensor node determines it's position and it's subregion based Embedded GPS or Location Discovery Algorithm. After that, All the sensors collect position coordinates, current remaining energy, sensor node id, and the number of its one-hop live neighbors during the information exchange. It stores this information into a list L.
572 The sensor node enter in listening mode waiting to receive ActiveSleep packet from the leader to take the decision. Each sensor node will execute the Algorithm~1 to know who is the leader. After that, if the sensor node is leader, It will execute the integer program algorithm ( see section~\ref{cp}) to optimize the coverage and the lifetime in it's subregion. After the decision, the optimization approach will select the set of sensor nodes to take the mission of coverage during the sensing phase. The leader will send ActiveSleep packet to each sensor node in the subregion to inform him to it's status during the period of sensing, either Active or sleep until the starting of next round. Based on the decision, the leader as other nodes in subregion, either go to be active or go to be sleep during current sensing phase. the other nodes in the same subregion will stay in listening mode waiting the ActiveSleep packet from the leader. After finishing the time period for sensing, all the sensor nodes in the same subregion will start new round by executing the DiLCO protocol and the lifetime in the subregion will continue until all the sensor nodes are died or the network becomes disconnected in the subregion.
576 \section{\uppercase{Coverage problem formulation}}
579 \indent Our model is based on the model proposed by \cite{pedraza2006} where the
580 objective is to find a maximum number of disjoint cover sets. To accomplish
581 this goal, the authors proposed an integer program which forces undercoverage
582 and overcoverage of targets to become minimal at the same time. They use binary
583 variables $x_{jl}$ to indicate if sensor $j$ belongs to cover set $l$. In our
584 model, we consider binary variable $X_{j}$ which determine the activation of
585 sensor $j$ in the sensing phase. We also consider primary points as targets.
586 The set of primary points is denoted by $P$ and the set of sensors by $J$.
588 \noindent Let $\alpha_{jp}$ denote the indicator function of whether the primary
589 point $p$ is covered, that is:
591 \alpha_{jp} = \left \{
593 1 & \mbox{if the primary point $p$ is covered} \\
594 & \mbox{by sensor node $j$}, \\
595 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
599 The number of active sensors that cover the primary point $p$ can then be
600 computed by $\sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{jp} * X_{j}$ where:
604 1& \mbox{if sensor $j$ is active,} \\
605 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
609 We define the Overcoverage variable $\Theta_{p}$ as:
611 \Theta_{p} = \left \{
613 0 & \mbox{if the primary point}\\
614 & \mbox{$p$ is not covered,}\\
615 \left( \sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{jp} * X_{j} \right)- 1 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
619 \noindent More precisely, $\Theta_{p}$ represents the number of active sensor
620 nodes minus one that cover the primary point~$p$. The Undercoverage variable
621 $U_{p}$ of the primary point $p$ is defined by:
625 1 &\mbox{if the primary point $p$ is not covered,} \\
626 0 & \mbox{otherwise.}\\
631 \noindent Our coverage optimization problem can then be formulated as follows:
632 \begin{equation} \label{eq:ip2r}
635 \min \sum_{p \in P} (w_{\theta} \Theta_{p} + w_{U} U_{p})&\\
636 \textrm{subject to :}&\\
637 \sum_{j \in J} \alpha_{jp} X_{j} - \Theta_{p}+ U_{p} =1, &\forall p \in P\\
639 %\sum_{t \in T} X_{j,t} \leq \frac{RE_j}{e_t} &\forall j \in J \\
641 \Theta_{p}\in \mathbb{N} , &\forall p \in P\\
642 U_{p} \in \{0,1\}, &\forall p \in P \\
643 X_{j} \in \{0,1\}, &\forall j \in J
649 \item $X_{j}$ : indicates whether or not the sensor $j$ is actively sensing (1
650 if yes and 0 if not);
651 \item $\Theta_{p}$ : {\it overcoverage}, the number of sensors minus one that
652 are covering the primary point $p$;
653 \item $U_{p}$ : {\it undercoverage}, indicates whether or not the primary point
654 $p$ is being covered (1 if not covered and 0 if covered).
657 The first group of constraints indicates that some primary point $p$ should be
658 covered by at least one sensor and, if it is not always the case, overcoverage
659 and undercoverage variables help balancing the restriction equations by taking
660 positive values. Two objectives can be noticed in our model. First, we limit the
661 overcoverage of primary points to activate as few sensors as possible. Second,
662 to avoid a lack of area monitoring in a subregion we minimize the
663 undercoverage. Both weights $w_\theta$ and $w_U$ must be carefully chosen in
664 order to guarantee that the maximum number of points are covered during each
667 \section{\uppercase{Protocol evaluation}}
668 \label{sec:Simulation Results and Analysis}
669 \noindent \subsection{Simulation framework}
671 To assess the performance of our DiLCO protocol, we have used the discrete
672 event simulator OMNeT++ \cite{varga} to run different series of simulations.
673 Table~\ref{table3} gives the chosen parameters setting.
676 \caption{Relevant parameters for network initializing.}
679 % used for centering table
681 % centered columns (4 columns)
683 %inserts double horizontal lines
684 Parameter & Value \\ [0.5ex]
686 %Case & Strategy (with Two Leaders) & Strategy (with One Leader) & Simple Heuristic \\ [0.5ex]
690 % inserts single horizontal line
691 Sensing Field & $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ \\
692 % inserting body of the table
694 Nodes Number & 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250~nodes \\
696 Initial Energy & 500-700~joules \\
698 Sensing Period & 60 Minutes \\
699 $E_{th}$ & 36 Joules\\
703 % [1ex] adds vertical space
709 % is used to refer this table in the text
712 Simulations with five different node densities going from 50 to 250~nodes were
713 performed considering each time 25~randomly generated networks, to obtain
714 experimental results which are relevant. The nodes are deployed on a field of
715 interest of $(50 \times 25)~m^2 $ in such a way that they cover the field with a
718 We chose as energy consumption model the one proposed proposed by~\cite{ChinhVu}
719 and based on ~\cite{raghunathan2002energy} with slight modifications. The energy
720 consumed by the communications is added and the part relative to a variable
721 sensing range is removed. We also assume that the nodes have the characteristics
722 of the Medusa II sensor node platform \cite{raghunathan2002energy}. A sensor
723 node typically consists of four units: a MicroController Unit, an Atmels AVR
724 ATmega103L in case of Medusa II, to perform the computations; a communication
725 (radio) unit able to send and receive messages; a sensing unit to collect data;
726 a power supply which provides the energy consumed by node. Except the battery,
727 all the other unit can be be switched off to save energy according to the node
728 status. Table~\ref{table4} summarizes the energy consumed (in milliWatt per
729 second) by a node for each of its possible status.
732 \caption{Energy consumption model}
735 % used for centering table
737 \begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|}
738 % centered columns (4 columns)
740 %inserts double horizontal lines
741 Sensor status & MCU & Radio & Sensing & Power (mW) \\ [0.5ex]
743 % inserts single horizontal line
744 Listening & ON & ON & ON & 20.05 \\
745 % inserting body of the table
747 Active & ON & OFF & ON & 9.72 \\
749 Sleep & OFF & OFF & OFF & 0.02 \\
751 Computation & ON & ON & ON & 26.83 \\
753 %\multicolumn{4}{|c|}{Energy needed to send/receive a 1-bit} & 0.2575\\
759 % is used to refer this table in the text
762 Less influent energy consumption sources like when turning on the radio,
763 starting the sensor node, changing the status of a node, etc., will be neglected
764 for the sake of simplicity. Each node saves energy by switching off its radio
765 once it has received its decision status from the corresponding leader (it can
766 be itself). As explained previously in subsection~\ref{main_idea}, two kinds of
767 packets for communication are considered in our protocol: INFO packet and
768 ActiveSleep packet. To compute the energy needed by a node to transmit or
769 receive such packets, we use the equation giving the energy spent to send a
770 1-bit-content message defined in~\cite{raghunathan2002energy} (we assume
771 symmetric communication costs), and we set their respective size to 112 and
772 24~bits. The energy required to send or receive a 1-bit-content message is thus
773 is equal to 0.2575 mW.
775 Each node has an initial energy level, in Joules, which is randomly drawn in the
776 interval $[500-700]$. If it's energy provision reaches a value below the
777 threshold $E_{th}=36$~Joules, the minimum energy needed for a node to stay
778 active during one period, it will no more participate in the coverage task. This
779 value corresponds to the energy needed by the sensing phase, obtained by
780 multiplying the energy consumed in active state (9.72 mW) by the time in seconds
781 for one period (3600 seconds), and adding the energy for the pre-sensing phases.
782 According to the interval of initial energy, a sensor may be active during at
785 In the simulations, we introduce the following performance metrics to evaluate
786 the efficiency of our approach:
788 %\begin{enumerate}[i)]
790 \item {{\bf Network Lifetime}:} we define the network lifetime as the time until
791 the coverage ratio drops below a predefined threshold. We denote by
792 $Lifetime_{95}$ (respectively $Lifetime_{50}$) the amount of time during which
793 the network can satisfy an area coverage greater than $95\%$ (respectively
794 $50\%$). We assume that the sensor network can fulfill its task until all its
795 nodes have been drained of their energy or it becomes disconnected. Network
796 connectivity is crucial because an active sensor node without connectivity
797 towards a base station cannot transmit any information regarding an observed
798 event in the area that it monitors.
801 \item {{\bf Coverage Ratio (CR)}:} it measures how well the WSN is able to
802 observe the area of interest. In our case, we discretized the sensor field
803 as a regular grid, which yields the following equation to compute the
807 \mbox{CR}(\%) = \frac{\mbox{$n$}}{\mbox{$N$}} \times 100.
809 where $n$ is the number of covered grid points by active sensors of every
810 subregions during the current sensing phase and $N$ is total number of grid
811 points in the sensing field. In our simulations, we have a layout of $N = 51
812 \times 26 = 1326$ grid points.
813 %The accuracy of this method depends on the distance between grids. In our
814 %simulations, the sensing field has been divided into 50 by 25 grid points, which means
815 %there are $51 \times 26~ = ~ 1326$ points in total.
816 % Therefore, for our simulations, the error in the coverage calculation is less than ~ 1 $\% $.
820 \item{{\bf Number of Active Sensors Ratio(ASR)}:} It is important to have as few active nodes as possible in each round,
821 in order to minimize the communication overhead and maximize the
822 network lifetime. The Active Sensors Ratio is defined as follows:
825 \mbox{ASR}(\%) = \frac{\sum\limits_{r=1}^R \mbox{$A_r^t$}}{\mbox{$S$}} \times 100 .
827 Where: $A_r^t$ is the number of active sensors in the subregion $r$ during round $t$ in the current sensing phase, $S$ is the total number of sensors in the network, and $R$ is the total number of the subregions in the network.
831 \item {{\bf Energy Consumption}:} energy consumption (EC) can be seen as the
832 total energy consumed by the sensors during $Lifetime_{95}$ or
833 $Lifetime_{50}$, divided by the number of periods. Formally, the computation
834 of EC can be expressed as follows:
837 \mbox{EC} = \frac{\sum\limits_{m=1}^{M} \left( E^{\mbox{com}}_m+E^{\mbox{list}}_m+E^{\mbox{comp}}_m
838 + E^{a}_m+E^{s}_m \right)}{M},
841 where $M$ corresponds to the number of periods. The total energy consumed by
842 the sensors (EC) comes through taking into consideration four main energy
843 factors. The first one , denoted $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{com}}_m$, represent the
844 energy consumption spent by all the nodes for wireless communications during
845 period $m$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{list}}_m$, the next factor, corresponds to
846 the energy consumed by the sensors in LISTENING status before receiving the
847 decision to go active or sleep in period $m$. $E^{\scriptsize \mbox{comp}}_m$
848 refers to the energy needed by all the leader nodes to solve the integer program
849 during a period. Finally, $E^a_{m}$ and $E^s_{m}$ indicate the energy consumed
850 by the whole network in the sensing phase (active and sleeping nodes).
854 \item {{\bf Execution Time}:} a sensor node has limited energy resources and
855 computing power, therefore it is important that the proposed algorithm has the
856 shortest possible execution time. The energy of a sensor node must be mainly
857 used for the sensing phase, not for the pre-sensing ones.
859 \item {{\bf Stopped simulation runs}:} A simulation ends when the sensor network
860 becomes disconnected (some nodes are dead and are not able to send information
861 to the base station). We report the number of simulations that are stopped due
862 to network disconnections and for which round it occurs.
870 %\subsection{Performance Analysis for different subregions}
871 \subsection{Performance analysis}
874 In this subsection, we first focus on the performance of our DiLCO protocol for
875 different numbers of subregions. We consider partitions of the WSN area into
876 $2$, $4$, $8$, $16$, and $32$ subregions. Thus the DiLCO protocol is declined in
877 five versions: DiLCO-2, DiLCO-4, DiLCO-8, DiLCO-16, and DiLCO-32. Simulations
878 without partitioning the area of interest, case which corresponds to a
879 centralized approach, are not presented because they require high execution
880 times to solve the integer program and therefore consume too much energy.
882 We compare our protocol to two other approaches. The first one, called DESK and
883 proposed by ~\cite{ChinhVu} is a fully distributed coverage algorithm. The
884 second one, called GAF ~\cite{xu2001geography}, consists in dividing the region
885 into fixed squares. During the decision phase, in each square, one sensor is
886 chosen to remain active during the sensing phase.
888 \subsubsection{Coverage ratio}
890 Figure~\ref{fig3} shows the average coverage ratio for 150 deployed nodes. It
891 can be seen that both DESK and GAF provide a little better coverage ratio
892 compared to DiLCO in the first thirty periods. This can be easily explained by
893 the number of active nodes: the optimization process of our protocol activates
894 less nodes than DESK or GAF, resulting in a slight decrease of the coverage
895 ratio. In case of DiLCO-2 (respectively DiLCO-4), the coverage ratio exhibits a
896 fast decrease with the number of periods and reaches zero value in period~18
897 (respectively 46), whereas the other versions of DiLCO, DESK, and GAF ensure a
898 coverage ratio above 50\% for subsequent periods. We believe that the results
899 obtained with these two methods can be explained by a high consumption of energy
900 and we will check this assumption in the next subsection.
902 Concerning DiLCO-8, DiLCO-16, and DiLCO-32, these methods seem to be more
903 efficient than DESK and GAF, since they can provide the same level of coverage
904 (except in the first periods where DESK and GAF slightly outperform them) for a
905 greater number of periods. In fact, when our protocol is applied with a large
906 number of subregions (from 8 to 32~regions), it activates a restricted number of
907 nodes, and thus allow to extend the network lifetime.
912 \includegraphics[scale=0.45] {R/CR.pdf}
913 \caption{Coverage ratio}
917 %As shown in the figure ~\ref{fig3}, as the number of subregions increases, the coverage preservation for area of interest increases for a larger number of periods. Coverage ratio decreases when the number of periods increases due to dead nodes. Although some nodes are dead,
918 %thanks to DiLCO-8, DiLCO-16 and DiLCO-32 protocols, other nodes are preserved to ensure the coverage. Moreover, when we have a dense sensor network, it leads to maintain the coverage for a larger number of rounds. DiLCO-8, DiLCO-16 and DiLCO-32 protocols are
919 %slightly more efficient than other protocols, because they subdivides
920 %the area of interest into 8, 16 and 32~subregions if one of the subregions becomes disconnected, the coverage may be still ensured in the remaining subregions.%
922 \subsubsection{Energy consumption}
924 Based on the results shown in Figure~\ref{fig3}, we focus on the DiLCO-16 and
925 DiLCO-32 versions of our protocol, and we compare their energy consumption with
926 the DESK and GAF approaches. For each sensor node we measure the energy consumed
927 according to its successive status, for different network densities. We denote
928 by $\mbox{\it Protocol}/50$ (respectively $\mbox{\it Protocol}/95$) the amount
929 of energy consumed while the area coverage is greater than $50\%$ (repectively
930 $95\%$), where {\it Protocol} is one of the four protocols we compare.
931 Figure~\ref{fig95} presents the energy consumptions observed for network sizes
932 going from 50 to 250~nodes. Let us notice that the same network sizes will be
933 used for the different performance metrics.
937 \includegraphics[scale=0.45]{R/EC.pdf}
938 \caption{Energy consumption}
942 The results depict the good performance of the different versions of our
943 protocol. Indeed, the protocols DiLCO-16/50, DiLCO-32/50, DiLCO-16/95, and
944 DiLCO-32/95 consume less energy than their DESK and GAF counterparts for a
945 similar level of area coverage. This observation reflects the larger number of
946 nodes set active by DESK and GAF.
949 %In fact, a distributed method on the subregions greatly reduces the number of communications and the time of listening so thanks to the partitioning of the initial network into several independent subnetworks.
950 %As shown in Figures~\ref{fig95} and ~\ref{fig50} , DiLCO-2 consumes more energy than the other versions of DiLCO, especially for large sizes of network. This is easy to understand since the bigger the number of sensors involved in the integer program, the larger the time computation to solve the optimization problem as well as the higher energy consumed during the communication.
952 \subsubsection{Execution time}
954 Another interesting point to investigate is the evolution of the execution time
955 with the size of the WSN and the number of subregions. Therefore, we report for
956 every version of our protocol the average execution times in seconds needed to
957 solve the optimization problem for different WSN sizes. The execution times are
958 obtained on a laptop DELL which has an Intel Core~i3~2370~M~(2.4~GHz) dual core
959 processor and a MIPS rating equal to 35330. The corresponding execution times on
960 a MEDUSA II sensor node are then extrapolated according to the MIPS rate of the
961 Atmels AVR ATmega103L microcontroller (6~MHz), which is equal to 6, by
962 multiplying the laptop times by $\left(\frac{35330}{2} \times
963 \frac{1}{6}\right)$. The expected times on a sensor node are reported on
968 \includegraphics[scale=0.45]{R/T.pdf}
969 \caption{Execution time in seconds}
973 Figure~\ref{fig8} shows that DiLCO-32 has very low execution times in comparison
974 with other DiLCO versions, because the activity scheduling is tackled by a
975 larger number of leaders and each leader solves an integer problem with a
976 limited number of variables and constraints. Conversely, DiLCO-2 requires to
977 solve an optimization problem with half of the network nodes and thus presents a
978 high execution time. Nevertheless if we refer to Figure~\ref{fig3}, we observe
979 that DiLCO-32 is slightly less efficient than DilCO-16 to maintain as long as
980 possible high coverage. In fact excessive subdivision of the area of interest
981 prevents to ensure good coverage especially on the borders of the
982 subregions. Thus, the optimal number of subregions can be seen as a trade-off
983 between execution time and coverage performance.
985 %The DiLCO-32 has more suitable times in the same time it turn on redundent nodes more. We think that in distributed fashion the solving of the optimization problem in a subregion can be tackled by sensor nodes. Overall, to be able to deal with very large networks, a distributed method is clearly required.
987 \subsubsection{Network lifetime}
989 In the next figure, the network lifetime is illustrated. Obviously, the lifetime
990 increases with the network size, whatever the considered protocol, since the
991 correlated node density also increases. A high network density means a high
992 node redundancy which allows to turn-off many nodes and thus to prolong the
997 \includegraphics[scale=0.45]{R/LT.pdf}
998 \caption{Network lifetime}
1002 As highlighted by Figure~\ref{figLT95}, when the coverage level is relaxed
1003 ($50\%$) the network lifetime also improves. This observation reflects the fact
1004 that the higher the coverage performance, the more nodes must be active to
1005 ensure the wider monitoring. For a same level of coverage, DiLCO outperforms
1006 DESK and GAF for the lifetime of the network. More specifically, if we focus on
1007 the larger level of coverage ($95\%$) in case of our protocol, the subdivision
1008 in $16$~subregions seems to be the most appropriate.
1010 % with our DiLCO-16/50, DiLCO-32/50, DiLCO-16/95 and DiLCO-32/95 protocols
1011 % that leads to the larger lifetime improvement in comparison with other approaches. By choosing the best
1012 % suited nodes, for each round, to cover the area of interest and by
1013 % letting the other ones sleep in order to be used later in next rounds. Comparison shows that our DiLCO-16/50, DiLCO-32/50, DiLCO-16/95 and DiLCO-32/95 protocols, which are used distributed optimization over the subregions, are the best one because it is robust to network disconnection during the network lifetime as well as it consume less energy in comparison with other approaches. It also means that distributing the protocol in each node and subdividing the sensing field into many subregions, which are managed
1014 % independently and simultaneously, is the most relevant way to maximize the lifetime of a network.
1016 \section{\uppercase{Conclusion and future work}}
1017 \label{sec:Conclusion and Future Works}
1019 A crucial problem in WSN is to schedule the sensing activities of the different
1020 nodes in order to ensure both coverage of the area of interest and longest
1021 network lifetime. The inherent limitations of sensor nodes, in energy provision,
1022 communication and computing capacities, require protocols that optimize the use
1023 of the available resources to fulfill the sensing task. To address this
1024 problem, this paper proposes a two-step approach. Firstly, the field of sensing
1025 is divided into smaller subregions using the concept of divide-and-conquer
1026 method. Secondly, a distributed protocol called Distributed Lifetime Coverage
1027 Optimization is applied in each subregion to optimize the coverage and lifetime
1028 performances. In a subregion, our protocol consists to elect a leader node
1029 which will then perform a sensor activity scheduling. The challenges include how
1030 to select the most efficient leader in each subregion and the best
1031 representative set of active nodes to ensure a high level of coverage. To assess
1032 the performance of our approach, we compared it with two other approaches using
1033 many performance metrics like coverage ratio or network lifetime. We have also
1034 study the impact of the number of subregions chosen to subdivide the area of
1035 interest, considering different network sizes. The experiments show that
1036 increasing the number of subregions improves the lifetime. The more there are
1037 subregions, the more the network is robust against random disconnection
1038 resulting from dead nodes. However, for a given sensing field and network size
1039 there is an optimal number of subregions. Therefore, in case of our simulation
1040 context a subdivision in $16$~subregions seems to be the most relevant. The
1041 optimal number of subregions will be investigated in the future.
1044 \noindent In this paper, we have addressed the problem of the coverage and the lifetime
1045 optimization in wireless sensor networks. This is a key issue as
1046 sensor nodes have limited resources in terms of memory, energy and
1047 computational power. To cope with this problem, the field of sensing
1048 is divided into smaller subregions using the concept of divide-and-conquer method, and then a DiLCO protocol for optimizing the coverage and lifetime performances in each subregion.
1049 The proposed protocol combines two efficient techniques: network
1050 leader election and sensor activity scheduling, where the challenges
1051 include how to select the most efficient leader in each subregion and
1052 the best representative active nodes that will optimize the network lifetime
1053 while taking the responsibility of covering the corresponding
1054 subregion. The network lifetime in each subregion is divided into
1055 rounds, each round consists of four phases: (i) Information Exchange,
1056 (ii) Leader Election, (iii) an optimization-based Decision in order to
1057 select the nodes remaining active for the last phase, and (iv)
1058 Sensing. The simulations show the relevance of the proposed DiLCO
1059 protocol in terms of lifetime, coverage ratio, active sensors ratio, energy consumption, execution time, and the number of stopped simulation runs due to network disconnection. Indeed, when
1060 dealing with large and dense wireless sensor networks, a distributed
1061 approach like the one we are proposed allows to reduce the difficulty of a
1062 single global optimization problem by partitioning it in many smaller
1063 problems, one per subregion, that can be solved more easily.
1065 In future work, we plan to study and propose a coverage optimization protocol, which
1066 computes all active sensor schedules in one time, using
1067 optimization methods. \iffalse The round will still consist of 4 phases, but the
1068 decision phase will compute the schedules for several sensing phases
1069 which, aggregated together, define a kind of meta-sensing phase.
1070 The computation of all cover sets in one time is far more
1071 difficult, but will reduce the communication overhead. \fi
1074 \section*{\uppercase{Acknowledgements}}
1076 \noindent As a Ph.D. student, Ali Kadhum IDREES would like to gratefully
1077 acknowledge the University of Babylon - IRAQ for the financial support and
1078 Campus France for the received support.
1081 \bibliographystyle{apalike}
1083 \bibliography{Example}}