Analytic Modeling ofDetection Latency inMobile Sensor Networks

An envisioned usageofsensor networks isinsurveillance systems fordetecting atarget ormonitoring aphysical phenomenoninaregion. Traditionally, stationary sensor networksaredeployed tocarry outthesensing operations. In manyapplications, ifthemonitored region isrelatively large compared tothesensing rangeofanode, alarge numberof nodesarerequired intheregion toachieve highcoverage. Usingmobile nodesinsuchsituations canbeanattractive alternative. Mobility ofsensor nodeshasbeenstudied in sensor networks formanypurposes suchaspowersaving, datacollection, andpacket delivery. However, nearly all research literature forthetarget detection problem hasfocused onstationary sensor networks. Thispaperinvestigates theproblem ofdetecting thepresence/absence ofatarget usingmobile sensor networks. Itpresents ananalytic method toevaluate thedetection latency basedonacollaborative sensing approach using nodeswithuncoordinated mobility. Weverify theanalytic modelthrough simulations. Theanalytic methodprovides asimple wayofanalyzing thetradeoff between numberofnodesanddetection latency inamobile sensor network. Theanalysis isalsousedtocompare the performance ofmobile andstationary sensor networks with respect tothese measures. Results showthatifthetarget is present attheworstpossible location inagiven deployment, thendetection latency ofmobile sensor networks isconsiderably less ascompared tothatofstationary networks with thesamenumberofnodes.