On the Deployment of Wireless Sensor Nodes

In this paper, we study the deployment issue of a wireless sensor network. We address the following problem: given the required lifetime of a sensor network, the initial energy of each sensor node, and the area to be covered, what is the minimum number of nodes needed to construct such a network and what is the corresponding deployment scheme? Finding an efficient deployment scheme involves location management, routing, and power management. Our analysis focuses on linear networks. We formulate two optimization problems with numerical solutions. Then, we propose and analyze a greedy deployment scheme that achieves close to optimal performance. We reveal the relationship among different design parameters, namely, the number of sensor nodes, the desired lifetime, and the coverage distance. The study sheds light on the design, analysis, and evaluation of sensor network deployment.