On the Maximum Directional Target Coverage Problem in Wireless Sensor Networks

Due to technological advances in micro-electronics, digital electronics, and wireless data communications, we have witnessed the advent of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) and related applications in many areas such as battlefield surveillance, environmental monitoring, and biomedical observation. In this paper, we investigate the Maximum Directional Target Coverage Problem (MDTCP) for a special group of wireless sensor networks in which each sensor has a specific coverage range and a limited coverage angle. Given a set of sensors and a set of target points in a finite area, the objective of MDTCP is to cover the maximum number of target points by adjusting the directions of sensors. We develop a polynomial time approximation algorithm with performance ratio 1-e/e for MDTCP. In addition, we also analyze the structure of MDTCP from the Combinatorics' point of view.