A New Meta-heuristic Algorithm for Maximizing Lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks

Monitoring a set of targets and extending network lifetime is a critical issue in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Various coverage scheduling algorithms have been proposed in the literature for monitoring deployed targets in WSNs. These algorithms divide the sensor nodes into cover sets, and each cover set can monitor all targets. It is proven that finding the maximum number of disjointed cover sets is an NP-complete problem. In this paper we present a novel and efficient cover set algorithm based on Imperialist Competitive Algorithm (ICA). The proposed algorithm taking advantage of ICA determines the sensor nodes that must be selected in different cover sets. As the presented algorithm proceeds, the cover sets are generated to monitor all deployed targets. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, several simulations have been conducted and the obtained results show that the proposed approach outperforms similar algorithms in terms of extending the network lifetime. Also, our proposed algorithm has a coverage redundancy that is about 1–2% close to the optimal value.