Identifying the Boundary of a Wireless Sensor Network with a Mobile Sink

This paper summarizes an effort to evaluate the usability of a mobile sink for identifying the boundary of a wireless sensor network. In order to achieve the desired task we transform the problem of boundary identification into one of edge node identification. The algorithm designed is based on a mobile sink equipped with a directional antenna, which identifies the edge nodes and connects them to complete the boundary of the sensor field. The proposed scheme has following distinct features. Firstly, it is independent of the sensor node deployment, and therefore can be used for fields having very low node density. Secondly, it does not require sensor field flooding which helps preserving the nodes’ energy. Thirdly, it works with low cost sensor nodes, i.e., it does not impose any special requirements on the hardware of individual sensor nodes (no GPS, no special antennas, etc.), which makes it cost effective.