Accurate performance bounds for target detection in WSNs with deterministic node placement

Abstract

This paper addresses target detection applications for long-lasting surveillance of areas of interest using unattended Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In this context, to achieve a long system lifetime, sensing and communication modules of wireless sensor nodes may be switched on and off according to a prefixed duty cycle, whose use has an impact on (i) the latency of notifications (depending only on the communication duty cycle) and (ii) the probability of target detection (depending only on the number of deployed nodes and the sensing duty cycle). This paper provides an accurate evaluation of the probability of missed target detection in scenarios where node positions are known and duty cycles are used to save energy. This work extends a previous work with stochastic node placement [1], and allows to derive simple, yet very accurate, upper and lower bounds on the probability of target detection.