Localized distributed sensor deployment via coevolutionary computation

Sensor placement of a wireless sensor network has a significant impact on the network performance, such as sensing coverage, communication costs and connectivity. Depending on the application domains, the deployment method of sensor networks may vary. In autonomous sensor networks, the deployment is typically realized via cooperative movement among the nodes themselves. In this paper, we propose a sensor deployment protocol, LODICO, to optimize the sensor placement with arbitrary initial positions. In essence, it is a distributed evolutionary algorithm executed cooperatively among all sensor nodes via local information exchange. The simulation results show that LODICO can provide a very high coverage rate in a short convergence time.