ABSTRACT
Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) enable long term environment monitoring at scales and resolutions that are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain using conventional techniques. WSNs can be re-tasked after deployment in the field based on changes in environment, conditions of the sensor network themselves, or scientific endeavor requirements. This chapter introduces a novel 3-D deployment strategy, called Optimized 3-D Grid deployment with Lifetime Constraint (O3DwLC), for relay nodes in environmental applications. It proposes an efficient two-phase solution for the 3-D deployment problem, which considers a limited search space, generic communication model, most appropriate lifetime definition, and harsh operational conditions. The chapter introduces a general definition for the targeted relay node deployment problem. Models in the literature differ in the way they consider a wireless sensor network to be still operational. These models can rely on connectivity of the deployed nodes or on percentage of live nodes in network. The chapter defines Connectivity-based (CB) and Percentage of Alive Nodes (PAN) models.
