Approximation algorithm for minimizing relay node placement in wireless sensor networks

To eliminate the routing load unbalance among sensor nodes, one approach is to deploy a small number of powerful relay nodes acting as routing nodes in wireless sensor networks, the major optimization objective of which is to minimize the number of relay nodes required. In this paper, we prove that the relay node placement problem in a bounded plane is a P problem, but its computational complexity in general case is quite great. From the geometric cover feature of the relay node placement problem, an O(n2 log n) time greedy approximation algorithm is proposed, where n is the number of sensor nodes. Particularly, at each stage of this algorithm’s iterative process, we first select a critical node from uncovered sensor nodes, and then determine the location of relay node based on the principle of preferring to cover the sensor node closer to the critical node, so as to prevent the emergence of isolated node. Experiment results indicate that our proposed algorithm can generate a near optimum feasible relay node deployment in a very short time, and it outperforms existing algorithms in terms of both the size of relay node deployment and the execution time.