Location-free Coverage Maintenance in Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensing coverage maintenance is concerned with providing coverage to a targeted region with prolonged system lifetime by utilizing redundant deployment of sensor nodes. Most existing approaches to coverage maintenance require knowledge of accurate location information. In this paper, we propose a novel location-free coverage maintenance scheme in wireless sensor networks that exploits power control and radio connectivity information in constructing sparse structures in wireless sensor networks. Our solution is based on the solid theoretical basis of the coverage property of minimal dominating sets derived in this paper. Extensive simulation studies show that the proposed location-free coverage maintenance protocol can indeed provide comparable coverage with similar or even less working nodes as compared to location-based solutions. Meanwhile, it is robust to non-uniform node density, inaccuracies in transmission range control and heterogeneity in sensing ranges. Index Terms WSNs, coverage, minimal dominating set, union of disks