Coding Theory Framework for Target Location in Distributed Sensor Networks

Distributed, real-time sensor networks are essential for effective surveillance in the digitized battlefield and for environmental monitoring. In this paper, we present the first systematic theory that leads to novel sensor deployment strategies for effective surveillance and target location. We represent the sensor field as a grid (twoor threedimensional) of points (coordinates), and use the term target location to refer to the problem of pin-pointing a target at a grid point at any instant in time. We use the framework of identifying codes to determine sensor placement for unique target location. We provide coding-theoretic bounds on the number of sensors and present methods for determtheir placement in the sensor field. We also show that sensor placement for single targets provides asymptotically complete (unambiguous) location of multiple targets.