k-coverage Problems and Solutions in Wireless Sensor Networks: A Survey

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of sensor nodes those are capable of sensing environmental data such as temperature, humidity, pressure, sound etc. and transmit those data to a basestation through the network. Achieving sufficient coverage in the sensing area is a challenging feature in WSNs. Coverage indicates that how well an area is monitored i.e., whether each location of an area is within the sensing range of sensors. Some WSNs applications require multilevel coverage where each location in an area is covered by more than one sensor node. Moreover, sensor nodes must have to maintain a communication range among themselves. In this paper, a survey has been presented onk-coverage problems in WSNs where each location of an area should be covered by at least k sensors. Here, two categories of k-coverage problems have been identified and their different solution approaches have been discussed.