Sensor density for complete information coverage in wireless sensor networks

Coverage is a very important issue in wireless sensor networks. Current literature defines a point to be covered if it is within the sensing radius of at least one sensor. This is a conservative definition of coverage and we have previously proposed a new notion of information coverage. Compared with the conventional definition of coverage, a point can still be information covered even if it is not within the sensing disk of any sensor. The density requirements for complete information coverage of a field are analyzed and simulated for a random sensor deployment. Our results show that significant savings in terms of sensor density can be achieved with information coverage.