Solving Point Coverage Problem in Wireless Sensor Networks Using Whale Optimization Algorithm

Todays, dynamic power management methods that decrease the energy use of sensor networks after their design and deployment are of paramount importance. In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), coverage and detection quality are one aspect of service quality and power consumption reduction aspect. The aim of the coverage problem is to monitor at least one node at each point in the targeted area and is divided into three categories: border, area, and point coverage. In point coverage, which is our interest, the problem is to cover specific points of the environment scattered on the surface of the environment; their position is decided on and called the goal. In this paper, a new metaheuristic algorithm based on Whale Optimization Algorithm (WOA) is proposed. The proposed algorithm tries to find the Best Solution (BS) based on three operations exploration, spiral attack, and siege attack. Several scenarios, including medium, hard and complex problems, are designed to evaluate the proposed technique, and it is compared to Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based on time complexity criteria in providing a suitable coverage, network lifetime, energy consumption. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than the compared ones in most scenarios.