A Node Deployment Algorithm Based on Van Der Waals Force in Wireless Sensor Networks

The effectiveness of wireless sensor networks (WSN) depends on the regional coverage provided by node deployment, which is one of the key topics in WSN. Virtual force-based algorithms (VFA) are popular approaches for this problem. In VFA, all nodes are seen as points subject to repulsive and attractive force exerted among them and can move according to the calculated force. In this paper, a sensor deployment algorithm for mobile WSN based on van der Waals force is proposed. Friction force is introduced into the equation of force, the relationship of adjacency of nodes is defined by Delaunay triangulation, and the force calculated produce acceleration for nodes to move. An evaluation metric called pair correlation function is introduced here to evaluate the uniformity of the node distribution. Simulation results and comparisons have showed that the proposed approach has higher coverage rate, more uniformity in configuration, and moderate convergence time compared to some other virtual force algorithms.