Homology theory provides new and powerful solutions to address the coverage
problems in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They are based on algebraic
objects, such as Cech complex and Rips complex. Cech complex gives accurate
information about coverage quality but requires a precise knowledge of the
relative locations of nodes. This assumption is rather strong and hard to
implement in practical deployments. Rips complex provides an approximation of
Cech complex. It is easier to build and does not require any knowledge of nodes
location. This simplicity is at the expense of accuracy. Rips complex can not
always detect all coverage holes. It is then necessary to evaluate its
accuracy. This work proposes to use the proportion of the area of undiscovered
coverage holes as performance criteria. Investigations show that it depends on
the ratio between communication and sensing radii of a sensor. Closed-form
expressions for lower and upper bounds of the accuracy are also derived. For
those coverage holes which can be discovered by Rips complex, a homology-based
distributed algorithm is proposed to detect them. Simulation results are
consistent with the proposed analytical lower bound, with a maximum difference
of 0.5%. Upper bound performance depends on the ratio of communication and
sensing radii. Simulations also show that the algorithm can localize about 99%
coverage holes in about 99% cases