Energy-efficient coverage problems in wireless ad-hoc sensor networks

Wireless sensor networks constitute the platform of a broad range of applications related to national security, surveillance, military, health care, and environmental monitoring. The sensor coverage problem has received increased attention recently, being considerably driven by recent advances in affordable and efficient integrated electronic devices. This problem is centered around a fundamental question: How well do the sensors observe the physical space? The coverage concept is subject to a wide range of interpretations due to a variety of sensors and their applications. Different coverage formulations have been proposed, based on the subject to be covered (area versus discrete points) and sensor deployment mechanism (random versus deterministic) as well as on other wireless sensor network properties (e.g. network connectivity and minimum energy consumption). In this article, we survey recent contributions addressing energy-efficient coverage problems in the context of static wireless sensor networks. We present various coverage formulations, their assumptions, as well as an overview of the solutions proposed.