Target coverage management in wireless sensor networks

As an important issue reflecting the QoS of the sensing task, coverage problem impacts widely on the performance of wireless sensor networks. The target coverage lifetime maximization problem is yet a challenging problem, which tries to settle a compromise between managing the coverage of a set of targets and maximizing the lifetime of the network. This problem becomes more accurate when targets detection is distance dependent. In this paper, we address the target coverage lifetime maximization problem by considering a probabilistic coverage model, which takes into account the distance parameter. We propose an algorithm based on a modified version of the classical well-known weighed set cover which organizes sensors in disjoint and non-disjoint set covers. Performance evaluation of our solution indicated good performance in managing coverage of targets while extending the network lifetime.