Coverage for target localization in wireless sensor networks

Target tracking and localization are important applications in wireless sensor networks. Although the coverage problem for target detection has been intensively studied, few consider the coverage problem from the perspective of target localization. In this paper, we propose two methods to estimate the necessary sensor density which can guarantee a localization error bound over the sensing field. In the first method, we convert the coverage problem for localization to a conventional disk coverage problem, where the sensing area is a disk centered around the sensor. Our results show that the disk coverage model requires 4 times more sensors for tracking compared to detection applications. We then introduce the idea of sector coverage, which can satisfy the same coverage conditions with 2 times less sensors over the disk coverage approach. This shows that conventional disk coverage model is insufficient for tracking applications, since it overestimates the sensor density by two times. Simulation results show that the network density requirements derived through sector coverage are close to the actual need for target tracking applications.