A coverage-based scheduling algorithm for WSNs

Node scheduling in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) plays a vital role in conserving energy and lengthening the lifetime of networks, which are considered as prime design challenges. In large-scaled WSNs, especiallywhere sensor nodes are deployed randomly, 100% coverage is not possible all the times. Additionally, several types of applications of WSNs do not require 100 % coverage. Following these facts, in this paper, we propose a coverage based node scheduling algorithm. The algorithm shows that by sacrificing a little amount of coverage, a huge amount of energy can be saved. This, in turns, helps to increase the lifetime of the network. We provide mathematical analysis, which verifies the correctness of the proposed algorithm. The proposed algorithm ensures balanced energy consumption over the sensor networks. Moreover, simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm almost doubles the lifetime of a wireless sensor network by sacrificing only 5-8 % of coverage.