Wireless Multihop Network Coverage Incorporating Boundary and Shadowing Effects

ABSTRACT

The performance of wireless multihop networks (WSNs) deployed in a finite region is affected by environmental phenomena such as shadowing and boundary effects. The shadowing effect affects the actual sensing range of sensor nodes due to varying amounts of signal path-losses, whereas the useful coverage area of a sensor node gets affected by its location within the deployed region-known as boundary effects. The existing analytical solutions for large networks are not conformable for finite networks as boundary effects distort the linearities between the network variables and cause non-linear behaviour of network dynamics. Earlier works have provided the analytical solution for the performance metrics of (WSNs) by considering either shadowing or boundary effects separately but considering these effects together is still non-existent. Therefore, it is imperative to study the impact of boundary and shadowing effects simultaneously while estimating the performance of a WMN as it indicates – how well the network monitors a given region? This work provides an analytical solution by considering boundary and shadowing effects simultaneously to compute the $\kappa$-coverage probability of a random location within a circular region. The proposed analytical solution is verified through exhaustive simulations with a root mean square error of less than or equal to 0.0189 between the analytical and simulation outcomes. This work has also analysed the influence of different network parameters on the network $\kappa$-coverage performance and concludes that the sensing range and the number of sensor nodes have positive, whereas the standard deviation of the shadowing effect has a negative impact on the coverage.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary effects
• Fault tolerance
• $\kappa$-coverage
• Shadowing effects
• Wireless multihop network
• Wireless channel’s characteristics

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge IIT Kharagpur for providing institutional support to carry out this work.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jaiprakash Nagar

Jaiprakash Nagar was born in Nagla Vasdev, Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India, in 1991. He received the integrated BTech. (Electronics and Communication Engineering) and MTech (Wireless Communication and Networks) degree from Gautam Buddha University, Greater Noida, India, in 2015. He is currently pursuing PhD degree with the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability, IIT Kharagpur, India. He has published nine research articles in reputed SCI/Scopus indexed journals and international conferences (IEEE/Springer/Taylor and Francis). His current research interests include analytical modelling of wireless multihop networks, the Internet of Things (IoTs), machine learning techniques for the IoTs, and block-chain implementation for real-life applications.

Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi

Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi is currently working as a professor at Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability (formerly Reliability Engineering Centre), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (WB), India. He received his PhD degree from Reliability Engineering Centre, IIT, Kharagpur (India) in year 2003. He did his Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and master’s degree in system engineering and operations research, both from the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (erstwhile University of Roorkee), U P, India. He has research interests in the area of reliability modelling and analysis, network reliability, life-data analysis, maintenance, and optimization. He has published papers in several international journals such as IEEE Transactions on Reliability, Performability Engineering (IJPE), Quality and Reliability Management, Quality, Reliability and Safety Engineering, Uncertain Systems, Risk and Reliability Part “O,” Quality Technology and Quantitative Management, Quality and Reliability International, etc and executed several consultancy projects of private and government organizations. He has guided six PhD, 50 plus post-graduate students, and written two books. He is also on the review panel of IEEE Transactions on Reliability, IJPE, IJQRM, IJ System Science, IJ Failure Analysis. He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering and Management Sciences (IJMEMS). He is also a senior member to IEEE and served as co-EIC of International Journal of Performability Engineering. Email: [email protected]

Sieteng Soh

Sieteng Soh received the BS degree in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1987 and MS and PhD in electrical engineering from the Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge in 1989 and 1993, respectively. From 1993 to 2000, he was with the Tarumanagara University, Indonesia. He is a senior lecturer with the School of Electrical Engineering, Computing and Mathematical Sciences at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia. His research interests include P2P systems, computer network, network reliability, and parallel and distributed processing. He is a member of the IEEE. Email: [email protected]