A node coverage algorithm for a wireless-sensor-network-based water resources monitoring system

The application of wireless sensor network can achieve real-time monitoring of the underwater environment. Nodes must be effectively deployed in the targeted monitoring area to gain full coverage of the resources in a monitored area of water. However, the variability of flowing water is likely to cause a delay in the transmission of the resource data. Node mobility also requires the use of a more advanced algorithm in the coverage control method of the WSN. What type of methods or measures should be used to deploy mobile sensor nodes to effectively meet the requirement of water resource monitoring tasks and realize the full coverage of water resources, thereby improving the monitoring quality? Moreover, how can the coverage capacity of mobile sensor nodes be improved in water resource monitoring? These are pressing research issues to resolve. This study proposes the deployment of an algorithm for an improved sensor network k-coverage based on probabilistic sensing; maximum weight matching is introduced to realize a centralized allocation strategy, which can effectively reduce the energy consumed in node allocation. The coverage results obtained in a simulation were higher than those of the event probability and the energy-efficient coverage algorithms. The energy consumed during sensor node movement was lower than that with the latter two approaches, indicating that the network node coverage algorithm based on probabilistic sensing that is proposed in this study can effectively meet the requirements for the application of WSNs in water resource monitoring.