A Study of Three-Dimensional Sensor Network Deployment for Pipeline Systems

Applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in pipeline monitoring are rapidly developed. The coverage problem is a fundamental problem of WSN. However, most current sensor network research assumes that sensor nodes are deployed on a two-dimensional plane. But in reality, sensor nodes deployed on the surface of pipeline will be three-dimensional. This paper studies the problem of sensor nodes coverage and deployment in a three-dimensional space based on the characteristics of pipeline architecture. The analysis result shows that r_s≥√2r (r_s denotes the sensing range of sensor node and r denotes the radius of pipeline) is necessary condition for seamless covering the overall pipeline in a three-dimensional space. And then the three-dimensional coverage efficient is analyzed, which shows that the relationships between the sensing range of sensor node and the radius of pipeline can badly affect coverage efficient.