Modeling and shaping the lifetime of target detection sensor networks

In this work we model the lifetime of a clustered sensor network deployed for target detection. We assume sensors are randomly dropped on a bidimensional field in order to detect target traversals occuring stochastically. Once a target enters the sensing area of a sensor, the sensor transmits such information to a cluster head, in charge of receiving and retransmitting the messages received from the sensors deployed on the field. The contribution of this work is threefold. We first identify the sensing nodes whose behavior is key to model the duration of sensing operations. We then proceed, providing a heuristic estimation of the traffic received by the cluster head to quantify its energy requirements, resorting to specific lifetime definitions. We finally evaluate the relationship between our probabilistic and heuristic models and the time until when the network fulfills its purpose, i.e., it remains capable of detecting and reporting the traversal of any target to a sink, as obtained by simulation.