Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization protocol in wireless sensor networks

Coverage and lifetime are two paramount problems in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, a method called Multiround Distributed Lifetime Coverage Optimization protocol (MuDiLCO) is proposed to maintain the coverage and to improve the lifetime in wireless sensor networks. The area of interest is first divided into subregions, and then the MuDiLCO protocol is distributed to the sensor nodes in each subregion. The proposed MuDiLCO protocol works in periods during which sets of sensor nodes are scheduled, with one set for each round of a period, to remain active during the sensing phase and thus ensure coverage so as to maximize the WSN lifetime. The decision process is carried out by a leader node, which solves an optimization problem to produce the best representative sets to be used during the rounds of the sensing phase. The optimization problem formulated as an integer program is solved to optimality through a Branch-and-Bound method for small instances. For larger instances, the best feasible solution found by the solver after a given time limit threshold is considered. Compared with some existing protocols, simulation results based on multiple criteria (energy consumption, coverage ratio, and so on) show that the proposed protocol can prolong efficiently the network lifetime and improve the coverage performance.