An Optimized Node Deployment Solution Based on a Virtual Spring Force Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Network Applications.

Shiyun Liu,Xin Qian,Xiaohua Deng,Rongxin Tang,Zhiyong Yu,Kai Yuan

doi:10.3390/s19081817

Abstract

How to effectively deploy all wireless sensors and save a system’s energy consumption is a key issue in current wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. Theoretical analysis has proven that a hexagonal structure is the best topology in the two-dimensional network, which can provide the maximum coverage area with the minimum number of sensor nodes and minimum energy consumption. Recently, many scientists presented their self-deployment strategies based on different virtual forces and discussed the corresponding efficiency via several case studies. However, according to our statistical analysis, some virtual force algorithms, e.g., virtual spring force, can still cause holes or twisted structure in a small region of the final network distribution, which cannot achieve the ideal network topology and will waste the system energy in real applications. In this paper, we first statistically analyzed the convergence and deployment effect of the virtual spring force algorithm to derive our question. Then we presented an optimized strategy that sensor deployment begins from the center of the target region by adding an external central force. At the early stage, the external force will be added to the most peripheral nodes to promote the formation of hexagonal topology and avoid covering holes or unusual structure. Finally, a series of independent simulation experiments and corresponding statistical results proved that our optimized deployment solution is very stable and effective, which can improve the energy consumption of the whole sensor network and be used in the application of a large scale WSN.

Highlights

With the rapid development of 5G and IoT technologies, wireless sensor networks get much more attention in our life and have real applications in many fields, such as industrial robot, environmental exploration, military monitoring and human health etc. [1,2,3,4]
As for a wireless sensor network, how to effectively readjust sensor locations via self-deployment strategy to achieve an ideal coverage with minimum sensor nodes has already become a hot topic in recent years [5]
Once a wireless sensor networks has been deployed to the final hexagon topology, this force would be released in the algorithm

Summary

Introduction

With the rapid development of 5G and IoT technologies, wireless sensor networks get much more attention in our life and have real applications in many fields, such as industrial robot, environmental exploration, military monitoring and human health etc. [1,2,3,4]. Most of the previous self-deployment works based on the virtual force algorithm have a little bit imperfect region that includes coverage redundancy or omission [9,11,17] This is a common case in many deployment solutions [8,10]. Our optimized method is a valid algorithm which presents a possible node deployment strategy in WSN applications, which theoretically provides a hexagonal structure in the two-dimensional network with the maximum coverage area and the minimum number of sensor nodes. It presents main numerical parameters, detailed simulation results, statistical analysis of 100 independent experiments to prove the validation of VFA-SF and to demonstrate its disadvantage and instability.

Virtual Force Algorithm Inspired by Spring Force

Performance Evaluation of the VFA-SF

Simulation Descriptions of the VFA-SF

Statistical Analysis for VFA-SF

Optimization Strategy

The parameters are consistent with the previous section

Simulation Results of Optimized VFA-SF-OPT Algorithm

Energy Consumption

Conclusions