Coverage Preservation with Rapid Forwarding in Energy-Harvesting Wireless Sensor Networks for Critical Rare Events

Wireless sensor networks for rarely occurring critical events must maintain sensing coverage and low-latency network connectivity to ensure event detection and subsequent rapid propagation of notification messages. Few algorithms have been proposed that address both coverage and forwarding and those that do are either unconcerned with rapid propagation or are not optimised to handle the constant changes in topology observed in duty-cycled networks. This article proposes an algorithm for Coverage Preservation with Rapid Forwarding (CPRF). The algorithm is shown to deliver perfect coverage maintenance and low-latency guaranteed message propagation whilst allowing stored-charge conservation via collaborative duty cycling in energy-harvesting networks. Favourable comparisons are made against established and recently proposed algorithms in both sparse planned and dense random distributions. Further, an implementation for commercially available wireless sensing devices is evaluated for detection and notification of damage to highway light poles caused by vortex shedding.