Aerial node placement in wireless sensor networks using Fuzzy K-means clustering

In wireless sensor networks (WSN), mobility or energy constraints of nodes can lead to network partitioning. In this paper, aerial platform (AP) was used as a relay node in order to provide full connectivity to a disconnected ground WSN. Moreover, the Fuzzy K-means clustering algorithm was used to find suitable locations for placing APs so that the number of APs would be minimized. The comparison of the results of the proposed algorithm with the optimal exhaustive search algorithm characterized it as nearly optimal.