Cost models for 3-D deployment of Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks

Three-Dimensional (3-D) Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks (WMSNs) are extensively used for monitoring and surveillance applications. In a three-dimensional scenario the audio, video, and scalar sensors are placed in a 3-D space with the help of available deployment techniques. In this paper, we propose cost models to evaluate various deployment strategies with respect to their deployment costs. We compare deterministic and random deployment strategies in a 3-D space. Several researchers investigate cost models over the two-dimensional plane. Such cost models may not be realistic and fail to represent the real life scenario. Our proposed cost models can be used by network designer under the constraints of deployment budget and Quality-of-Service requirements. We observe that the deterministic deployment strategy is costly as compared to random deployment of sensor nodes. Further, the directional nature of video sensor node limits the coverage area in 3-D space.