Barrier Coverage With Wireless Sensors

Abstract

In old times, castles were surrounded by moats (deep trenches filled with water, and even alligators) to thwart or discourage intrusion attempts. One can now replace such barriers with stealthy and wireless sensors. In this paper, we develop theoretical foundations for laying barriers of wireless sensors. We define the notion of <i>k</i>-barrier coverage of a belt region using wireless sensors. We propose efficient algorithms using which one can quickly determine, after deploying the sensors, whether a region is <i>k</i>-barrier covered. Next, we establish the optimal deployment pattern to achieve <i>k</i>-barrier coverage when deploying sensors deterministically. Finally, we consider barrier coverage with high probability when sensors are deployed randomly. We introduce two notions of probabilistic barrier coverage in a belt region -- weak and strong barrier coverage. While weak barrier-coverage with high probability guarantees the detection of intruders as they cross a barrier of <i>stealthy</i> sensors, a sensor network providing strong barrier-coverage with high probability (at the expense of more sensors) guarantees the detection of all intruders crossing a barrier of sensors, even when the sensors are <i>not</i> stealthy. Both types of barrier coverage require significantly less number of sensors than full-coverage, where every point in the region needs to be covered. We derive critical conditions for weak <i>k</i>-barrier coverage, using which one can compute the minimum number of sensors needed to provide weak <i>k</i>-barrier coverage with high probability in a given belt region. Deriving critical conditions for strong <i>k</i>-barrier coverage for a belt region is still an open problem.