Computing the k-coverage of a wireless network

Abstract

Coverage is one of the main quality of service of a wireless network. k-coverage, that is to be covered simultaneously by k network nodes, is synonym of reliability and numerous applications such as multiple site MIMO features, or handovers. We introduce here a new algorithm for computing the k-coverage of a wireless network. Our method is based on the observation that k-coverage can be interpreted as k layers of 1-coverage, or simply coverage. We use simplicial homology to compute the network's topology and a reduction algorithm to indentify the layers of 1-coverage. We provide figures and simulation results to illustrate our algorithm.