Ion-6: A Positionless Self-Deploying Method for Wireless Sensor Networks

Sensor networks are deployed to monitor the interested area. Maximizing the sensing coverage depends on effectively determining the locations of sensors. In this paper, a self-deploying method named as Ion-6 is proposed. Sensors are modeled as ions, and the links between them are treated as ionic bonds. When the number of ionic bonds of a sensor is full, the sensor will expel others out of its field. Sensors organize themselves as the hexagonal format to maximize the network's coverage area, retain the network connectivity, and prevent from introducing the coverage holes. The sensors in the proposed method can compute their moving directions and distances independently without priori position information. Simulation results show that Ion-6 can organize sensors as the hexagonal format to maximize the coverage area. The deploying time of Ion-6 is less than the molecule model and efficiently eliminates the unnecessary movements of the virtual force (V-force) method.