Title: Coverage and connected coverage problems for sensors embedded in a temperature-sensitive environment

Authors: Arunabha Sen, Nibedita Das, Sudheendra Murthy

Addresses: Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA. ' Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA. ' Department of Computer Science & Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA

Abstract: Several issues are encountered during deployment of bio-sensors in a human or animal body. Radio transmitters during operation dissipate energy and raise the temperature of its surroundings. A temperature-sensitive environment, such as the human body, can tolerate such increase in temperature only up to a certain threshold value, beyond which serious injury may result. To avoid such injury, the sensor placement must be carried out in a way that ensures the surrounding area temperature remains within the threshold. Using a thermal model for heat distribution from multiple heat sources (radio transmitters), we observed that if the sensor nodes are placed sufficiently apart from each other, then the temperature of the surrounding area does not exceed the threshold. This minimum separation distance constraint gives rise to a new variation of the sensor coverage problem.

Keywords: sensor coverage; connectivity; body sensor networks; NP-completeness; single-hop networks; multi-hop networks; approximation algorithm; generalised set cover problem; generalised independent set problem; biosensors; temperature sensitivity; human body; thermal modelling; heat distribution; safety; embedded sensors.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSNET.2010.031854

International Journal of Sensor Networks, 2010 Vol.7 No.1/2, pp.106 - 123

Published online: 26 Feb 2010 *

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