Wireless Sensor Network Deployment Using a Memetic Simulated Annealing

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) allow, thanks to the use of small wireless devices known as sensor nodes, the monitorization of wide and remote areas with precision and live-ness unseen to the date without the intervention of a human operator. When a WSN is being deployed, there are two major concerns: the coverage achieved has to be the largest possible, and the lifetime of the network has to be the longest possible. Since the lifetime of a WSN is determined by the power spent by any node in the network, which in turn is dominated by the power spent for transmissions, a way to increase the lifetime is to minimize the transmission power in any node of the network. We propose in this work the use of a memetic simulated annealing (MSA) to solve a newly defined instance for the problem of WSN deployment (a.k.a. WSN layout problem) in such a way that the coverage and lifetime are maximized. The results obtained will speak for the technique's efficiency.