The VF-PSO optimization algorithm for coverage and deployment of underwater wireless sensor network

Coverage is a factor to reflect the network service quality of the Underwater Wireless Sensor Network (UWSN). Existing UWSN has problems of void-hole and low coverage, which is reducing UWSN lifetime and ability to monitor deployment areas. To improve network coverage and network lifetime, a coverage optimization method based on virtual force and particle swarm optimization (VF-PSO) is proposed in this article. By action of virtual force, the underwater mobile nodes would move to a better position to improve network coverage in this method. For the VF-PSO algorithm, the virtual force can guide the optimization of particles and accelerate the convergence of particles to the global optimal solution. This algorithm could not only optimize the movement trend of nodes to maximize the coverage ratio but also adjust the node distance threshold to reduce the network coverage redundancy. Simulation presents that compared with other typical algorithms, VF-PSO can improve the network connectivity and coverage of the UWSN area, and effectively avoid the network void-hole problem.