DACYCLEM: A decentralized algorithm for maximizing coverage and lifetime in a mobile wireless sensor network

The goal of Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (M-WSN) is to sense a specific environment. A commonly considered objective is to organize the work of the sensors such that they monitor the environment as long as possible and cover a surface as large as possible. While most of the time this problem is formulated as a multi-objective optimization problem we present a new decentralized approach for building a connected dominating set (CDS) coupled with attractive and repulsive forces for the movement of sensors in order to maintain the network connectivity. The approach is implemented as a hybrid decentralized algorithm: DACYCLEM (Decentralized Algorithm under Connectivity constraint with mobilitY for Coverage and LifEtime Maximization). The lifetime and the coverage achieved by our approach are the results of the local interactions between the sensors and were not obtained by the application of a direct optimization method. We also introduce a new metric, the speed of coverage, to evaluate the balance between coverage and lifetime. Finally, our simulation results show that one single parameter of DACYCLEM is responsible for the balancing between coverage and lifetime.