A Self-Deployment Algorithm for Maintaining Maximum Coverage and Connectivity in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks Based on an Ant Colony Optimization

The self-deployment of nodes with non-uniform coverage in underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs) is challenging because it is difficult to access the three-dimensional underwater environment. The problem is further complicated if network connectivity needs to be considered. In order to solve the optimization problem of sensor network node deployment, we propose a maximum coverage and connectivity self-deployment algorithm that is based on ant colony optimization (MCC-ACO). We carry out the greedy strategy, improve the path selection probability and pheromone update system, and propose a self-deployment algorithm based on the foundation of standard ant colony optimization algorithms, so as to achieve energy-saving optimization coverage of target events. The main characteristic of the MCC-ACO algorithm is that it fully considers the effects of the changes in the event quantities and the random distribution of the nodes on the deployment effect of the nodes, ensures that every deployed node can be connected to the sink, and achieves the matching of node distribution density and event distribution. Therefore, the MCC-ACO algorithm has great practical value. A large number of comparative simulation experiments show that the algorithm can effectively realize the self-deployment problem of underwater sensor nodes. In addition, the paper also gives the impact of changes in the number of events in the network on the deployment effect.