Extending wireless sensor network lifetime through order-based genetic algorithm

Extending the lifetime is a key issue in wireless sensor networks. An effective way to extend the lifetime is to partition the sensors into several covers and activate the covers one by one. Thus, the more the covers, the longer the lifetime. To find the maximum number of covers has been modeled as the Set K-Cover problem. In this paper we propose using order-based genetic algorithm to solve the Set K-Cover problem for extending the lifetime of wireless sensor networks. The proposed algorithm needs neither an upper bound nor any assumption about the maximum number of covers. Experimental results show that the order-based genetic algorithm can achieve near-optimal solutions efficiently.