A three-dimensional network coverage optimization algorithm in healthcare system

This paper presents a healthcare monitoring architecture coupled with a wireless sensor network and wearable sensor systems which monitor chronic patients in nursing house or the elderly in their home. With this architecture, we investigate how sensor nodes are deployed in the three-dimension (3D) monitoring region to achieve uniform distribution, which directly determines the Quality of Service (QoS). Based on the existing two-dimension (2D) coverage-enhancing algorithms for wireless sensor networks, a 3D sensing model and a coverage optimization algorithm are proposed in this paper. Firstly, an intelligent optimization algorithm is utilized to adjust the position of sensor nodes. Then, we pick out the redundant nodes with the set coverage algorithm, and move them into the uncovered area to increase the coverage ratio. The simulation results show that the coverage ratio increased by the coverage optimization algorithm compared with the other coverage algorithms.