Using Mobile Sensors to Enhance Coverage in Linear Wireless Sensor Networks

One of the main challenges of using Linear Wireless Sensor Networks (LSN) is the reliability of the connections among the nodes. Faults in a few contiguous nodes may cause the creation of holes which will result in dividing the network into multiple disconnected segments. As a result, sensor nodes that are located between holes may not be able to deliver their sensed information which negativity affects the network sensing coverage. This paper develops two models to utilize mobile sensors to help recover from these faults and enhance coverage. The first model utilizes mobile sensors to cover the holes while the second model has the feature of reallocating previously deployed mobile sensors for best possible coverage. In both models, the added mobile nodes can provide additional sensing coverage as well as enable connectivity among disconnected segments in the LSN. Evaluations and comparisons between both models are provided. In addition, an analytical model for finding the expected number of mobile sensors needed for maintaining high coverage in a LSN with specific configurations is developed and validated.