Underwater Sensor Barriers with Auction Algorithms

With current technologies submarines can thwart active or passive sonar detection. A viable alternative to detect submissible vessels is to use magnetic or acoustic sensors in close proximity to possible underwater pathways of them. This approach may require deploying large-scale underwater sensor networks to form barriers. We show new results for construction barriers in 3D sensor networks. First, we prove that barriers are unlikely to exist in a large 3D fixed emplacement sensor field where sensor locations follow a Poisson point process. We then derive the notion of 3D stealth distance to measure how far a submarine can travel in a sensor network without detection. Finally, we describe energy conserving approaches for constructing a 3D barrier using mobile nodes to detect intruders. We focus on developing an energy efficient matching of mobile sensors that move to cover gridpoints using auction algorithms. We compare our results of the auction approach to an optimal approach using simulations and show that the auction algorithm produces similar results to the optimal approach at a reduced computational expense. This provides a fruitful new approach to constructing barriers in 3D sensor networks.