A Survey on Barrier Coverage Problem in Directional Sensor Networks

Barrier coverage guarantees to detect any intruder attempting to cross the barrier of sensor networks. In the majority of studies on barrier coverage using wireless sensor networks, sensors are assumed to have an isotropic sensing model. However, in certain applications like monitoring a region using video cameras, the sensors have directional sensing model. The nature of directional sensor networks demands novel algorithms and solutions. In directional sensor networks, this paper starts from the concept and characteristics of a directional sensing model, and then summarizes the sensing properties and behaviors of directional sensors. In particular, we classify the existing research results into different categories, such as strong barrier and weak barrier, 1-barrier and k-barrier, worst and best-case coverage and exposure path coverage, any-view coverage and full-view coverage, and overview each category in terms of problem definition, assumption, usage, solution, and performance. Finally, the open research problems to be solved and future work are also discussed.