Connectivity Preservation and Coverage Schemes for Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we consider the self-deployment of wireless sensor networks. We present a mechanism which allows to preserve network connectivity during the deployment of mobile wireless sensors. Our algorithm is localized and is based on a subset of neighbors for motion decision. Our algorithm maintains a connected topology regardless of the direction chosen by each sensor. To preserve connectivity, the distance covered by the mobile nodes is constrained by the connectivity of the node to its neighbors in a connected subgraph like the relative neighborhood graph. We show the connectivity preservation property of our algorithm through analysis and present some simulation results on different deployment schemes such as full coverage, point of interest coverage or barrier coverage.