A Multi-Armed Bandit Problem-Based Target Coverage Protocol for Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless sensor networks consist of tiny sensors with some constraints particularly when the energy is concerned. In recent years, owing to their vast applications, sensor networks are devoted a great part of researches aiming at enhancing the network lifetime. Since there are a large number of nodes available in the environment of the network, one important factor reaching this aim will be to activate the minimum number of nodes to provide a secure coverage of the targets under surveillance. By so doing, the energy consumption among the nodes of the network is optimized. In this paper, we have presented a Multi-Armed Bandit Problem-Based Target Coverage Protocol, called MABTC, for Wireless Sensor Networks, which endeavors to recognize nodes which are higher in energy amount yet are more effective in the coverage of the targets of the network and sustain the coverage in a way that the energy consumption of the nodes is balanced and optimized. To assess, the proposed protocol is simulated using NS2 and the results are compared to those of some outstanding methods in the network coverage.