Guiding sensor-node deployment over 2.5D terrain

We propose a novel distributed deployment algorithm for sensor networks whose nodes reside upon and are obstructed by 2.5D terrain. Our algorithm optimizes area coverage by computing cumulative visibility over terrain. Through simulation and comparison to centralized algorithms, we demonstrate that our distributed algorithm achieves good results and degrades gracefully with reduced internode communication. To the best of our knowledge, our distributed deployment algorithm is the first use of a distributed simulated annealing algorithm for sensor network deployment. In addition, to our knowledge, this is the first time range-limited cumulative visibility is used to guide sensor deployment over 2.5D terrain. Our results show that a centralized Simulated Annealing algorithm outperforms Pattern Search and Gradient Ascent approaches. Results also show that our version of Distributed Simulated Annealing performs well, degrading gracefully as communication radius is reduced.