The Optimal Sensing Coverage for Road Surveillance

So far path coverage problem has been studied widely to characterize the properties of the coverage of a path or a track in an area induced by a sensor network, in which the path or track is usually treated as a curve and the width of it can be ignored. However, sensor networks often are employed to carry out road surveillance or target tracking, in which the interesting area is only the surface of the road, thus the width of the road must be considered. This paper analyzes the optimal sensing coverage of the road in this kind of applications, assuming that sensor nodes are deployed along both sides of the road determinately. The optimal position of sensor nodes is studied considering the sensing range of sensors and the width of the road, and the purpose is to cover the road surface completely with minimal nodes. The isosceles triangle model is proposed and proved to be the most suitable, that is to say all sensors get the maximal available sensing area if any three nearest sensors located on both sides of the road form an isosceles triangle. Comparing with the equilateral triangle model proposed in other articles, this model increases the coverage rate and supplies complete coverage of the road.