Distributed Deployment Algorithm for Barrier Coverage in Mobile Sensor Networks

The deployment of sensor nodes (SNs) to form a network with coverage ability is one of the most important challenges of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we study an efficient distributed deployment algorithm for barrier coverage improvement with mobile sensors, in which the SNs can be relocated after the initial deployment. To achieve the maximum number of barriers, we propose a distributed algorithm to construct k-barrier coverage by relocation of the SNs. Different from existing approaches, we propose a novel clustering technique based on the network area to reduce the information exchange messages. Then, based on the SNs clusters, we propose a heuristic method to assign the SNs evenly into each cluster with regard to the required number of SNs of each cluster and decide the moving SNs by computing the optimal relocation, considering moving distance minimization. The main goal of this approach is to relocate the SNs to form the maximum number of barriers with a minimum relocation cost, in terms of sensor energy consumption of communication and movement. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm when compared with other competing approaches.