Optimal Barrier Coverage in Randomly Scattered Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have a wide range of applications, and barrier coverage is a crucial feature out of them, in which intruders who are trying to penetrate any protected areas can be easily detected. However, because the locations of mobile sensors cannot be controlled or predicted once they are deployed into the field of interest, achieving required barrier coverage after the initial random deployment of mobile sensors is difficult. In wireless sensor network, generally static sensor nodes are used but in our case, we have used mobile sensors to provide better connectivity, effective coverage, energy efficient and good topology management. Sensor deployment strategies are directly related to barrier coverage problem. To improve initial random deployment for ensuring coverage and connectivity in the sensor network, algorithms based on virtual forces are used. Virtual Force Algorithm (VFA) is improved with the factors like- the boundary in the Region of Interest (RoI), the effective distance of acting forces, useless moving, etc. We mainly focus on how to minimize the number of sensors required to construct the barrier so that it could be energy-constrained as well as cost effective. In this paper, we have discussed about barrier coverage problem, it's applications & design issues and finally proposed an optimized-VFA approach with the boundary constraint, where a wise combination of attractive and repulsive forces is used to determine virtual motion paths to create a rectangular barrier.