Coverage and connectivity are two important performance metrics in wireless sensor networks. In this paper, we study the sensor placement problem to achieve both coverage and connectivity. Instead of using the simplistic disk coverage model, we use our recently proposed confident information coverage model as the sensor coverage model. The grid approach is applied to discretize the sensing field, and our objective is to place the minimum number of sensors to form a connected network and to provide confident information coverage for all of the grid points. We first formulate the sensor placement problem as a constrained optimization problem. Then, two heuristic algorithms, namely the connected cover formation (CCF) algorithm and the cover formation and relay placement with redundancy removal (CFRP-RR) algorithm, are proposed to find the approximate solutions for the sensor placement problem. The simulation results validate their effectiveness, and the CCF algorithm performs slightly better than the CFRP-RR algorithm.
Keywords: confident information coverage; connectivity; sensor placement problem; wireless sensor networks.