An Adaptive ACO-Based Node Deployment Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensor node deployment is one of the critical problems in wireless sensor networks. Although several methods were proposed to solve the deployment problem in the past years, there still exists some weaknesses. In this paper, we propose an adaptive node deployment algorithm, named ACO-GD, based on the concept of ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm and an idea of gradient diffusion (GD). A preliminary algorithm was designed and proposed in this paper before ACO-GD. It is a non-uniform gradient diffusion approach and can be used to solve the energy hole problems and extend the network lifetime. The preliminary algorithm was then integrated with the ACO algorithm. The simulation results show that our ACO-GD algorithm performs better efficiency for the cost of coverage, network lifetime, and the number of hops.