A study on the coverage problem in wireless sensor network

In wireless sensor network, one of the fundamental issues is coverage. The coverage problem is discussed in this paper. The effective coverage for the monitored areas or targets provided by sensor networks is a very important criterion of their effectiveness. In this paper, we study the types of the coverage problem according to the deployment of the networks, the characters of monitored areas or targets, the sensing models of sensor nodes and so on. Furthermore, an algorithm is also proposed in order to improve the coverage performance of the networks. The algorithm can move redundant nodes to uncovered or weak-covered areas by the mobility of the nodes. Although there are some limits of energy and node hardware, the algorithm is still effective in practice.