Wireless sensor node deployment strategy for hilly terrains – a surface approximation based approach

Sensor deployment in a wireless sensor network (WSN) is a challenging task due to the high chance of occurrence of the error in the deployment process, which makes the network inefficient. Particularly in three-dimensional (3D) WSN, the ideal positioning of sensor nodes over the ground with precise coverage and connectivity is a very significant consideration in the deployment of sensors. Various models for 2D sensor deployment have been proposed to date, but in real-world scenarios, the target field (field of interest) is not always 2D flat surface and therefore a 2D deployment model cannot address the issue of deploying sensor nodes on uneven surfaces such as hilly terrains. In this paper, we presented a surface approximation-based sensor deployment using truncated octahedron (SASD-TO) to solve the problems of sensor deployment on an irregular surface. Using the B-Spline, a 3D model of the target surface is approximated and then a Truncated Octahedron is used to estimate the exact coordinates of a sensor node. A very decent coverage area as high as 98% on average, whereas at lowest 2% of the uncovered area and 8% of the superimposed area were observed.