3,530 research outputs found

    Coverage in wireless sensor networks: models and algorithms

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    2013 - 2014Due to technological advances which enabled their deployment in relevant and diverse scenarios, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) have been object of intense study in the last few years. Possible application contexts include environmental monitoring, tra c control, patient monitoring in healthcare and intrusion detection, among others (see, for example, [1], [2], [3]). The general structure of a WSN is composed of several hardware devices (sensors) deployed over a given region of interest. Each sensor can collect information or measure physical quantities for a subregion of the space around it (its sensing area), and more in particular for speci c points of interest (target points or simply targets) within this area. The targets located in the sensing area of a given sensor s are covered by s. Individual sensors are usually powered by batteries which make it possible to keep them functional for a limited time interval, with obvious constraints related to cost and weight factors. Using a network of such devices in a dynamic and coordinated fashion makes it possible to overcome the limitations in terms of range extension and battery duration which characterize each individual sensor, enabling elaborate monitoring of large regions of interest. Extending the amount of time over which such monitoring activity can be carried out represents a very relevant issue. This problem, generally known as Maximum Lifetime Problem (MLP), has been widely approached in the literature by proposing methods to determine: i) several subsets of sensors each one able to provide coverage for the target points and ii) the activation time of these subsets so that the battery constraints are satis ed. It should be noted that while sensors could be considered as belonging to di erent states during their usage in the intended application (such as receiving, transmitting, or idle) in this context two essential states can be identi ed. That is, each sensor may currently be active (i.e. used in the current cover, and consuming its battery) or not. Activating a cover refers therefore to switching all its sensors to the active state, while switching o all the other ones. This research thesis shows a detailed overview about the wireless sensor networks, about their applications but mainly about typical coverage issues in this eld. In particular, this work focuses on the issue of maximizing the amount of time over which a set of points of interest (target points), located in a given area, can be monitored by means of such wireless sensor networks. More in detail, in this research work we addressed the maximum lifetime problem on wireless sensor networks considering the classical problem in which all targets have to be covered (classical MLP) and a problem variant in which a portion of them can be neglected at all times ( -MLP) in order to increase the overall network lifetime. We propose an Column Generation approach embedding an e cient genetic algorithm aimed at producing new covers. The obtained algorithm is shown to be very e ective and e cient outperforming the previous algorithms proposed in the literature for the same problems. In this research work we also introduce two variants of MLP problem with heterogeneous sensors. Indeed, wireless sensor networks can be composed of several di erent types of sensor devices, which are able to monitor di erent aspects of the region of interest including temperature, light, chemical contaminants, among others. Given such sensor heterogeneity, di erent sensor types can be organized to work in a coordinated fashion in many relevant application contexts. Therefore in this work, we faced the problem of maximizing the amount of time during which such a network can remain operational while assuring globally a minimum coverage for all the di erent sensor types. We considered also some global regularity conditions in order to assure that each type of sensor provides an adequate coverage to each target. For both these problem variants we developed another hybrid approach, which is again based on a column generation algorithm whose subproblem is either solved heuristically by means of an appropriate genetic algorithm or optimally by means of ILP formulation. In our computational tests the proposed genetic algorithm is shown to be able to meaningfully speed up the global procedure, enabling the resolution of large-scale instances within reasonable computational times. To the best of our knowledge, these two problem variants has not been previously studied in the literature. [edited by author

    Cross-layer design for network performance optimization in wireless networks

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    In this dissertation, I use mathematical optimization approach to solve the complex network problems. Paper l and paper 2 first show that ignoring the bandwidth constraint can lead to infeasible routing solutions. A sufficient condition on link bandwidth is proposed that makes a routing solution feasible, and then a mathematical optimization model based on this sufficient condition is provided. Simulation results show that joint optimization models can provide more feasible routing solutions and provide significant improvement on throughput and lifetime. In paper 3 and paper 4, an interference model is proposed and a transmission scheduling scheme is presented to minimize the end-to-end delay. This scheduling scheme is designed based on integer linear programming and involves interference modeling. Using this schedule, there are no conflicting transmissions at any time. Through simulation, it shows that the proposed link scheduling scheme can significantly reduce end-to-end latency. Since to compute the maximum throughput is an NP-hard problem, efficient heuristics are presented in Paper 5 that use sufficient conditions instead of the computationally-expensive-to-get optimal condition to capture the mutual conflict relation in a collision domain. Both one-way transmission and two-way transmission are considered. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms improve network throughput and reduce energy consumption, with significant improvement over previous work on both aspects. Paper 6 studies the complicated tradeoff relation among multiple factors that affect the sensor network lifetime and proposes an adaptive multi-hop clustering algorithm. It realizes the best tradeoff among multiple factors and outperforms others that do not. It is adaptive in the sense the clustering topology changes over time in order to have the maximum lifetime --Abstract, page iv

    Sensor network coverage and data aggregation problem: solutions toward the maximum lifetime

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    In the coverage problem, an optimal solution is proposed for the maximum lifetime sensor scheduling problem, which could find the upper bound of a sensor network\u27s lifetime. This research reveals the relationship between the degree of redundancy in sensor deployment and achievable extension on network lifetime, which can be a useful guide for practical sensor network design --Introduction, page 4

    Reliable cost-optimal deployment of wireless sensor networks

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    Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) technology is currently considered one of the key technologies for realizing the Internet of Things (IoT). Many of the important WSNs applications are critical in nature such that the failure of the WSN to carry out its required tasks can have serious detrimental effects. Consequently, guaranteeing that the WSN functions satisfactorily during its intended mission time, i.e. the WSN is reliable, is one of the fundamental requirements of the network deployment strategy. Achieving this requirement at a minimum deployment cost is particularly important for critical applications in which deployed SNs are equipped with expensive hardware. However, WSN reliability, defined in the traditional sense, especially in conjunction with minimizing the deployment cost, has not been considered as a deployment requirement in existing WSN deployment algorithms to the best of our knowledge. Addressing this major limitation is the central focus of this dissertation. We define the reliable cost-optimal WSN deployment as the one that has minimum deployment cost with a reliability level that meets or exceeds a minimum level specified by the targeted application. We coin the problem of finding such deployments, for a given set of application-specific parameters, the Minimum-Cost Reliability-Constrained Sensor Node Deployment Problem (MCRC-SDP). To accomplish the aim of the dissertation, we propose a novel WSN reliability metric which adopts a more accurate SN model than the model used in the existing metrics. The proposed reliability metric is used to formulate the MCRC-SDP as a constrained combinatorial optimization problem which we prove to be NP-Complete. Two heuristic WSN deployment optimization algorithms are then developed to find high quality solutions for the MCRC-SDP. Finally, we investigate the practical realization of the techniques that we developed as solutions of the MCRC-SDP. For this purpose, we discuss why existing WSN Topology Control Protocols (TCPs) are not suitable for managing such reliable cost-optimal deployments. Accordingly, we propose a practical TCP that is suitable for managing the sleep/active cycles of the redundant SNs in such deployments. Experimental results suggest that the proposed TCP\u27s overhead and network Time To Repair (TTR) are relatively low which demonstrates the applicability of our proposed deployment solution in practice

    The Design of Medium Access Control (MAC) Protocols for Energy Efficient and QoS Provision in Wireless Sensor Networks

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    This thesis work focuses on innovative design of media access control (MAC) protocols in wireless sensor networks (WNSs). The characteristics of the WSN inquire that the network service design considers both energy efficiency and the associated application requirement. However, most existing protocols address only the issue of energy efficiency. In this thesis, a MAC protocol has been proposed (referred to as Q-MAC) that not only minimized the energy consumption in multi-hop WSNs, but also provides Quality of Service (QoS) by differentiating network services based on priority levels prescribed by different applications. The priority levels reflect the state of system resources including residual energy and queue occupancies. Q-MAC contains both intra- and inter- node arbitration mechanisms. The intra-node packet scheduling employs a multiple queuing architectures, and applies a scheduling scheme consisting of packet classification and weighted arbitration. We introduce the Power Conservation MACAW (PC-MACAW), a power-aware scheduling mechanism which, together with the Loosely Prioritized Random Access (LPRA) algorithm, govern the inter-node scheduling. Performance evaluation are conducted between Q-MAC and S-MAC with respect to two performance metrics: energy consumption and average latency. Simulation results indicate Q-MAC achieves comparable performance to that of S-MAC in non-prioritized traffic scenarios. When packets with different priorities are introduced, Q-MAC yields noticeable average latency differentiations between the classes of service, while preserving the same degree of energy consumption as that of S-MAC. Since the high density nature of WSN may introduce heavy traffic load and thus consume large amount of energy for communication, another MAC protocol, referred to as the Deployment-oriented MAC (D-MAC)has been further proposed. D-MAC minimalizes both sensing and communication redundancy by putting majority of redundant nodes into the sleep state. The idea is to establish a sensing and communication backbone covering the whole sensing field with the least sensing and communication redundancy. In specific, we use equal-size rectangular cells to partition the sensing field and chose the size of each cell in a way such that regardless of the actual location within the cell, a node can always sense the whole cell and communicate with all the nodes in neighboring cells. Once the sensing field has been partitioned using these cells, a localized Location-aware Selection Algorithm (LSA) is carried out to pick up only one node within each cell to be active for a fixed amount of period. This selection is energy-oriented, only nodes with a maximum energy will be on and the rest of nodes will be put into the sleep state once the selection process is over. To balance the energy consumption, the selection algorithm is periodically conducted until all the nodes are out of power. Simulation results indicated that D-MAC saves around 80% energy compared to that of S-MAC and Q-MAC, while maintaining 99% coverage. D-MAC is also superior to S-MAC and Q-MAC in terms of average latency. However, the use of GPS in D-MAC in identifying the nodes within the same cell, would cause extra cost and complexity for the design of sensor nodes

    Models, Theoretical Properties, and Solution Approaches for Stochastic Programming with Endogenous Uncertainty

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    In a typical optimization problem, uncertainty does not depend on the decisions being made in the optimization routine. But, in many application areas, decisions affect underlying uncertainty (endogenous uncertainty), either altering the probability distributions or the timing at which the uncertainty is resolved. Stochastic programming is a widely used method in optimization under uncertainty. Though plenty of research exists on stochastic programming where decisions affect the timing at which uncertainty is resolved, much less work has been done on stochastic programming where decisions alter probability distributions of uncertain parameters. Therefore, we propose methodologies for the latter category of optimization under endogenous uncertainty and demonstrate their benefits in some application areas. First, we develop a data-driven stochastic program (integrates a supervised machine learning algorithm to estimate probability distributions of uncertain parameters) for a wildfire risk reduction problem, where resource allocation decisions probabilistically affect uncertain human behavior. The nonconvex model is linearized using a reformulation approach. To solve a realistic-sized problem, we introduce a simulation program to efficiently compute the recourse objective value for a large number of scenarios. We present managerial insights derived from the results obtained based on Santa Fe National Forest data. Second, we develop a data-driven stochastic program with both endogenous and exogenous uncertainties with an application to combined infrastructure protection and network design problem. In the proposed model, some first-stage decision variables affect probability distributions, whereas others do not. We propose an exact reformulation for linearizing the nonconvex model and provide a theoretical justification of it. We designed an accelerated L-shaped decomposition algorithm to solve the linearized model. Results obtained using transportation networks created based on the southeastern U.S. provide several key insights for practitioners in using this proposed methodology. Finally, we study submodular optimization under endogenous uncertainty with an application to complex system reliability. Specifically, we prove that our stochastic program\u27s reliability maximization objective function is submodular under some probability distributions commonly used in reliability literature. Utilizing the submodularity, we implement a continuous approximation algorithm capable of solving large-scale problems. We conduct a case study demonstrating the computational efficiency of the algorithm and providing insights

    Mathematical Models and Algorithms for Network Flow Problems Arising in Wireless Sensor Network Applications

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    We examine multiple variations on two classical network flow problems, the maximum flow and minimum-cost flow problems. These two problems are well-studied within the optimization community, and many models and algorithms have been presented for their solution. Due to the unique characteristics of the problems we consider, existing approaches cannot be directly applied. The problem variations we examine commonly arise in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. A WSN consists of a set of sensors and collection sinks that gather and analyze environmental conditions. In addition to providing a taxonomy of relevant literature, we present mathematical programming models and algorithms for solving such problems. First, we consider a variation of the maximum flow problem having node-capacity restrictions. As an alternative to solving a single linear programming (LP) model, we present two alternative solution techniques. The first iteratively solves two smaller auxiliary LP models, and the second is a heuristic approach that avoids solving any LP. We also examine a variation of the maximum flow problem having semicontinuous restrictions that requires the flow, if positive, on any path to be greater than or equal to a minimum threshold. To avoid solving a mixed-integer programming (MIP) model, we present a branch-and-price algorithm that significantly improves the computational time required to solve the problem. Finally, we study two dynamic network flow problems that arise in wireless sensor networks under non-simultaneous flow assumptions. We first consider a dynamic maximum flow problem that requires an arc to transmit a minimum amount of flow each time it begins transmission. We present an MIP for solving this problem along with a heuristic algorithm for its solution. Additionally, we study a dynamic minimum-cost flow problem, in which an additional cost is incurred each time an arc begins transmission. In addition to an MIP, we present an exact algorithm that iteratively solves a relaxed version of the MIP until an optimal solution is found

    Communication-aware motion planning in mobile networks

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    Over the past few years, considerable progress has been made in the area of networked robotic systems and mobile sensor networks. The vision of a mobile sensor network cooperatively learning and adapting in harsh unknown environments to achieve a common goal is closer than ever. In addition to sensing, communication plays a key role in the overall performance of a mobile network, as nodes need to cooperate to achieve their tasks and thus have to communicate vital information in environments that are typically challenging for communication. Therefore, in order to realize the full potentials of such networks, an integrative approach to sensing (information gathering), communication (information exchange), and motion planning is needed, such that each mobile sensor considers the impact of its motion decisions on both sensing and communication, and optimizes its trajectory accordingly. This is the main motivation for this dissertation. This dissertation focuses on communication-aware motion planning of mobile networks in the presence of realistic communication channels that experience path loss, shadowing and multipath fading. This is a challenging multi-disciplinary task. It requires an assessment of wireless link qualities at places that are not yet visited by the mobile sensors as well as a proper co-optimization of sensing, communication and navigation objectives, such that each mobile sensor chooses a trajectory that provides the best balance between its sensing and communication, while satisfying the constraints on its connectivity, motion and energy consumption. While some trajectories allow the mobile sensors to sense efficiently, they may not result in a good communication. On the other hand, trajectories that optimize communication may result in poor sensing. The main contribution of this dissertation is then to address these challenges by proposing a new paradigm for communication-aware motion planning in mobile networks. We consider three examples from networked robotics and mobile sensor network literature: target tracking, surveillance and dynamic coverage. For these examples, we show how probabilistic assessment of the channel can be used to integrate sensing, communication and navigation objectives when planning the motion in order to guarantee satisfactory performance of the network in realistic communication settings. Specifically, we characterize the performance of the proposed framework mathematically and unveil new and considerably more efficient system behaviors. Finally, since multipath fading cannot be assessed, proper strategies are needed to increase the robustness of the network to multipath fading and other modeling/channel assessment errors. We further devise such robustness strategies in the context of our communication-aware surveillance scenario. Overall, our results show the superior performance of the proposed motion planning approaches in realistic fading environments and provide an in-depth understanding of the underlying design trade-off space

    Improved-Coverage Preserving Clustering Protocol in Wireless Sensor Network

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    Coverage maintenance for longer period is crucial problem in wireless sensor network (WSNs) due to limited inbuilt battery in sensors. Coverage maintenance can be prolonged by using the network energy efficiently, which can be done by keeping sufficient number of sensors in sensor covers. There has been discussed a Coverage-Preserving Clustering Protocol (CPCP) to increase the network lifetime in clustered WSNs. It selects sensors for various roles such as cluster heads and sensor cover members by considering various coverage aware cost metrics. In this paper, we propose a new heuristic called Improved-Coverage-Preserving Clustering Protocol (I-CPCP) to maximize the total network lifetime. In our proposed method, minimal numbers of sensor are selected to construct a sensor covers based on various coverage aware cost metrics. These cost metrics are evaluated by using residual energy of a sensor and their coverage. The simulation results show that our method has longer network lifetime as compared to generic CPCP
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