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The delay-constrained information coverage problem in mobile sensor networks: single hop case

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Abstract

In this paper, we study the delay-constrained information coverage problem in mobile sensor networks. Motivated by real application needs, our formulation takes advantage of the sensor mobility for sensing information collection, which takes place when a sensor moves into the proximity (single hop) of stationary sink nodes. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first formulation for the delay-constrained information coverage problem, which targets at optimal sink nodes placement with the objective of maximizing sensing information collection within a constrained time. We prove that this problem is NP-hard even under finite search space approximation and we develop theoretical analysis to derive its upper and lower performance bounds. We then develop approximation techniques and use simulations to verify their effectiveness.

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Abbreviations

A :

A vast 2-D geographic area

M :

The number of mobile sensors

ℵ:

The set of sink nodes

N :

The number of sink nodes, and N ≥ 1, and ℵ

S h :

The coverage region of stationary sink node h, and S h  ∈ A, 1 ≤ h ≤ N

R :

The coverage range of a sink node

T :

A time interval for the information coverage

D(A, t0):

The sensor position distribution across the area A at the initial time instant t 0

θ:

The moving direction of mobile sensors, [0, 2 π)

v :

The speed of mobile sensors

r v :

The travel distance of mobile sensors at each \(\bigtriangleup t\). It depends on the mobile platform of sensors and r v ≪ A

\(\bigtriangleup t\) :

The discrete time interval in which each sensor movement occurs

P(r, θ, t):

The probability of a mobile sensor lays at distance r and angle θ from its initial position at time t

d :

The radius of circular probability distribution for a single mobile sensor at the initial time instant t 0 (The radius of disk distribution)

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Acknowledgment

The research was support in part by grants from RGC under the contracts 615608, and 616207, by a grant from NSFC/RGC under the contract N_HKUST603/07.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, NT, Hong Kong

    Gabriel Y. Keung, Qian Zhang & Bo Li

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  1. Gabriel Y. Keung
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  2. Qian Zhang
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  3. Bo Li
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Correspondence to Gabriel Y. Keung.

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Keung, G.Y., Zhang, Q. & Li, B. The delay-constrained information coverage problem in mobile sensor networks: single hop case. Wireless Netw 16, 1961–1973 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-010-0238-2

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