OPTIVE: Optimal Configuration of Virtual Sensor in Mobile Sensor-Cloud

In this paper, we propose a scheme, OPTIVE, for obtaining the optimal configuration of a virtual sensor in the mobile sensor-cloud (MSC) architecture. The proposed scheme is capable of selecting the physical sensor nodes to form a virtual sensor (VS), based on the sensing area coverage for an application region. We use Markov Decision Process (MDP) to select the optimal mobile sensor nodes among the available ones, for configuring the VS in the application area. The MSC architecture is a new paradigm in which physical sensor nodes attain mobility by the virtue of mobile devices such as, laptops, cell phones, and vehicles. In MSC, a mobile device may move or exit from the application region at any time instant. Consequently, sensing hole arises in the application area, resulting in undesirable interruption in the end-user services. As multiple sensor nodes may be present in the application region, it is not suitable to allocate any available sensor node, randomly, to re-configure the VS for covering the sensing hole. In such a situation, OPTIVE selects the optimal physical sensor node to allocate in the VS for ensuring uninterrupted services to the end-users. Simulation results show that OPTIVE is capable of providing at least 80 - 90% coverage in the application area. Additionally, in the presence of 2 to 7 sensor nodes, the number of iterations in MDP change by 19.56%.