On wireless network coverage in bounded areas

Abstract

In this paper, we study the problem of wireless coverage in bounded areas. Coverage is one of the fundamental requirements of wireless networks. There has been considerable research on optimal coverage of infinitely large areas. However, in the real world, the deployment areas of wireless networks are always geographically bounded. It is a much more challenging and significant problem to find optimal deployment patterns to cover bounded areas. In this paper, we approach this problem starting from the development of tight lower bounds on the number of nodes needed to cover a bounded area. Then we design several deployment patterns for different kinds of convex and concave shapes such as rectangles and L-shapes. These patterns require only few more nodes than the theoretical lower bound, and can achieve efficient coverage. We have also carefully addressed and evaluated practical conditions such as coverage modeling and connectivity regarding our deployment patterns.