Energy Efficient Coverage Problems in Wireless Ad Hoc Sensor Networks

Abstract

Coverage is a typical problem in wireless sensor networks to fulfil the issued sensing tasks. In general, sensing coverage represents how well an area is monitored by sensors. The quality of a sensor network can be reflected by the levels of coverage and connectivity that it offers. The coverage problem has been studied extensively, especially when combined with connectivity and energy efficiency. Constructing a connected fully covered, and energy efficient sensor network is valuable for real world applications due to the limited resources of sensor nodes. In this paper, we survey recent contributions addressing energyefficient coverage problems in the context of static WASNs, networks in which sensor nodes do not move once they are deployed and present in some detail of the algorithms, assumptions, and results. A comprehensive comparison among these approaches is given from the perspective of design objectives, assumptions, algorithm attributes and related results.