Coverage Issues in

WSNs
Presented by Ming-Tsung Hsu

Outline

Wireless Sensor Networks

Coverage Issues

Wireless Sensor
Networks

Faster, Smaller, Numerous

Moores Law

Stuff (transistors, etc)

doubling every 1-2 years

Bells Law

New computing class

every 10 years
Streaming Data
to/from the
Physical World

log (people per computer)

year

Applications

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ty Control
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Environmental
Monitoring
Interactive
and
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Low
e ns
Mo
Di s
Sam
D

Habitat Monitoring
Pursuer-Evader

Integrated Biology

Intrusion Detection

Structural Monitoring

Automation

Fundamental Functionalities

Data collection - Sensor subsystem

Data processing - Process subsystem

Gathering information and controlling/monitoring

environments
Performing local computations

Data transmission - Communication

subsystem

Exchanging data

Characteristics
A special wireless ad hoc network

Large number of nodes are deployed randomly and densely

Scalability & Self-Configuration

Battery powered

Energy Efficiency

Topology and density change

Adaptivity

Working for a common task

Data Centric

In-network data processing (Data aggregation)

Message-level Latency

Sensor Deployment

How to deploy sensors over a field?

Deterministic, planned deployment

Random deployment

Desired properties of deployments?

Depends on applications
Connectivity
Coverage

Sensor Network Formation

Deployed densely and randomly

Dense means exits redundant nodes
Density control
Random means topology is indefinite
Topology control

Self-Configuration & Self-Organization

Scalability
Energy

Nodes Operations

On-Duty (working) nodes

Forming a sensor network

Am I redundant ?

Energy Consideration

Role-change? Off-duty?

Off-Duty (sleeping) nodes

Off-duty?

When to wakeup? On-duty?

Duty cycle policy

Scheduling vs. Adaptive

Duty period

Coverage, Connectivity

Is every point covered by 1 or K sensors

Is the sensor network connected

1-covered, K-covered
K-connected

Others

R
7

3
4

Coverage & Connectivity:

not independent, not identical

If region is continuous & Rt > 2Rs

Region is covered
sensors are connected

X. Wang (Sensys03)
H. Zhang & J. Hou (2004)

Rt
Rs

Real Products

Problem Tree for Coverage and

Connectivity Problems
deployment
connectivity

coverage
barrier
density
control

blanket

network
network

topology
formation

deterministic
# of sensors?
adaptive
K-connectivity
# of sensors
K-coverage
topology
Scheduling
ASCENT
are needed?
control
surveillance
LEACH
adaptive
algorithmic
& exposure
probabilistic
scheduling
per-node
(Max Rt)
PEAS
per-node
homo
homo
OGDC
k-connected
Xue&Kumar
Penrose
various
connected
subgraphs

Coverage Issues

Related Geometric Problems

Surveillance

(a)the Voronoi diagram and the maximal breach path

(b)the Delaunay triangulation and the maximal support path

Exposure

The exposure for an object in the sensor field during the interval t1 , t 2
along a path p t
t2

E p t , t1 , t 2 I F , p t
t1

dp t
dt

dt

minimal exposure path the worst coverage of a sensor network

Simple Coverage Problem

Given an area and a sensor deployment

Question: Is the entire area covered?

R
7

3
4

K-Coverage Problem

Given: region, sensor deployment, integer k

Question: Is the entire region k-covered?
C.-F. Huang & Y.-C Tseng (WSNA03)
1

R
7

3
4

Is the perimeter k-covered?

Is a belt region k-barrier

covered?

Construct a graph G(V, E)

V: sensor nodes, plus two dummy nodes L, R

E: edge (u,v) if their sensing disks overlap

Region is k-barrier covered iff L and R are kconnected in G

Density Control

Given: an area and a sensor deployment

Problem: turn on/off sensors to maximize the
sensor networks life time

Density Control (contd)

Nodes are on-duty or off-duty by Scheduling

or Probing

Resulting monitoring area still covered

Sensing range

Determined (disc)
Irregular in shape, or even follow a probabilistic
model

Approaches for Density

Control

Adaptive

PEAS (ICNP02 , ICDCS03)

CCP (SenSys03)

Scheduling

SET K-COVER (ICC01)

Co-Grid (IPSN04)
OGDC (International Workshop on Theoretical
and Algorithmic Aspects of Sensor, Ad hoc
Wireless and Peer-to-Peer Networks, 2004)

PEAS and OGDC

PEAS: A robust energy conserving protocol for longlived sensor networks

Fan Ye, et al (UCLA), ICNP02, ICDCS03,

Maintaining Sensing Coverage and Connectivity in

Large Sensor Networks

H. Zhang and J. Hou (UIUC), International Workshop on

Theoretical and Algorithmic Aspects of Sensor, Ad Hoc
Wireless, and Peer-to-Peer Networks (04), The Wireless Ad
Hoc and Sensor Networks: An International Journal (05)

PEAS: basic ideas

Probing Environment and Adaptive Sleeping

How often to wake up?
How to determine whether to work or not?
Wake-up rate?
Sleep

Wake up

Go to
Work?
no

yes

work

How often to wake up?

Desired: the total wake-up rate around a

node equals some given value

Inter Wake-up Time

f(t) = exp(- t)
exponential distribution
= average # of wake-ups per unit time

Wake-up rates
A
f(t) = exp(- t)

B
f(t) = exp(- t)

A + B:

f(t) = ( + ) exp(- ( + ) t)

Adjust wake-up rates

Working node knows

Desired wake-up rate d

Measured wake-up rate (form working node) m

Probing node adjusts its by

:= (d / m)

Go to work or return to
sleep?

Depends on whether there is a working node

nearby.

Rp
Go back to sleep

go to work

Is the resulting network

covered or connected?

If Rt (1 + 5) Rp and then
P(connected) 1

Simulation results show good coverage

Basic Idea of OGDC

OGDC: Optimal Geographical Density

Control
Minimize the number of working nodes
Minimize the total amount of overlap

Minimum overlap
D

Rs

To minimize overlap
Optimum distance D 3Rs

Minimum overlap (contd)

D

To minimize overlap
Optimum distance D 3Rs

Minimum overlap

Near-optimal

OGDC: the Protocol

Time is divided into rounds

In each round, each node runs this protocol to
decide whether to be active or not

Select a starting node. Turn it on and broadcast a poweron message

Select a node closest to the optimal position. Turn it on
and broadcast a power-on message. Repeat this.

Selecting starting nodes

Each node volunteers with a probability p.

Backs off for a random amount of time.
If hears nothing during the back-off time, then sends
a message carrying

Senders position
Desired direction

Select the next working node

On receiving a message from a starting node

Each node computes its deviation D from the
optimal position.
Sets a back-off timer inversely proportional to D.

On receiving a power-on message from a nonstarting node

PEAS vs. OGDC

Complexity
Coverage
Time Sync

Blanket vs. Barrier Coverage

Blanket coverage

Every point in the area is covered (or k-covered)

Barrier coverage

Every crossing path is k-covered

Is a belt region k-barrier

covered?

Construct a graph G(V, E)

V: sensor nodes, plus two dummy nodes L, R

E: edge (u,v) if their sensing disks overlap

Region is k-barrier covered iff L and R are kconnected in G.

Donut-shaped region

K-barrier covered iff G has k essential cycles.

Thanks