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Unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) have rapidly developed as mobile sensor networks recently in the investigation, survey, and exploration of the underwater environment. The goal of this paper is to develop a practical and efficient formation control method to improve work efficiency of multi-UUV sensor networks. Distributed leader-follower formation controllers are designed based on a state feedback and consensus algorithm. Considering that each vehicle is subject to model uncertainties and current disturbances, a second-order integral UUV model with a nonlinear function is established using the state feedback linearized method under current disturbances. For unstable communication among UUVs, communication failure and acoustic link noise interference are considered. Two-layer random switching communication topologies are proposed to solve the problem of communication failure. For acoustic link noise interference, accurate representation of valid communication information and noise stripping when designing controllers is necessary. Effective communication topology weights are designed to represent the validity of communication information interfered by noise. Utilizing state feedback and noise stripping, sufficient conditions for design formation controllers are proposed to ensure UUV formation achieves consensus under model uncertainties, current disturbances, and unstable communication. The stability of formation controllers is proven by the Lyapunov-Razumikhin theorem, and the validity is verified by simulation results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the problem of maximizing the energy utilization for data transmission in sensors with periodical wireless charging process while taking into account the thermal effect. Two classes of problems are analyzed: one is the case that wireless charging can process for only a limited period of time, and the other is the case that wireless charging can process for a long enough time. Algorithms are proposed to solve the problems and analysis of these algorithms are also provided. For the first problem, three subproblems are studied, and, for the general problem, we give an algorithm that can derive a performance bound of (1−1/2m)(OPT−E) compared to an optimal solution. In addition, for the second problem, we provide an algorithm with 2m/2m−1OPT+1 performance bound for the general problem. Simulations confirm the analysis of the algorithms [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, there is a growing interest in the applications of wireless sensor networks (WSNs). A set of sensor nodes is deployed in order to collectively survey an area of interest and/or perform specific surveillance tasks in some of the applications, such as battlefield reconnaissance. Due to the harsh deployment environments and limited energy supply, nodes may fail, which impacts the connectivity of the whole network. Since a single node failure (cut-vertex) will destroy the connectivity and divide the network into disjoint blocks, most of the existing studies focus on the problem of single node failure. However, the failure of multiple nodes would be a disaster to the whole network and must be repaired effectively. Only few studies are proposed to handle the problem of multiple cut-vertex failures, which is a special case of multiple node failures. Therefore, this paper proposes a comprehensive solution to address the problems of node failure (single and multiple). Collaborative Single Node Failure Restoration algorithm (CSFR) is presented to solve the problem of single node failure only with cooperative communication, but CSFR-M, which is the extension of CSFR, handles the single node failure problem more effectively with node motion. Moreover, Collaborative Connectivity Restoration Algorithm (CCRA) is proposed on the basis of cooperative communication and node maneuverability to restore network connectivity after multiple nodes fail. CSFR-M and CCRA are reactive methods that initiate the connectivity restoration after detecting the node failure(s). In order to further minimize the energy dissipation, CCRA opts to simplify the recovery process by gridding. Moreover, the distance that an individual node needs to travel during recovery is reduced by choosing the nearest suitable candidates. Finally, extensive simulations validate the performance of CSFR, CSFR-M and CCRA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The practical deployment of wireless positioning systems requires minimizing the calibration procedures while improving the location estimation accuracy. Received Signal Strength localization techniques using propagation channel models are the simplest alternative, but they are usually designed under the assumption that the radio propagation model is to be perfectly characterized a priori. In practice, this assumption does not hold and the localization results are affected by the inaccuracies of the theoretical, roughly calibrated or just imperfect channel models used to compute location. In this paper, we propose the use of weighted multilateration techniques to gain robustness with respect to these inaccuracies, reducing the dependency of having an optimal channel model. In particular, we propose two weighted least squares techniques based on the standard hyperbolic and circular positioning algorithms that specifically consider the accuracies of the different measurements to obtain a better estimation of the position. These techniques are compared to the standard hyperbolic and circular positioning techniques through both numerical simulations and an exhaustive set of real experiments on different types of wireless networks (a wireless sensor network, a WiFi network and a Bluetooth network). The algorithms not only produce better localization results with a very limited overhead in terms of computational cost but also achieve a greater robustness to inaccuracies in channel modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy efficiency and balancing is one of the primary challenges for wireless sensor networks (WSNs) since the tiny sensor nodes cannot be easily recharged once they are deployed. Up to now, many energy efficient routing algorithms or protocols have been proposed with techniques like clustering, data aggregation and location tracking etc. However, many of them aim to minimize parameters like total energy consumption, latency etc., which cause hotspot nodes and partitioned network due to the overuse of certain nodes. In this paper, a Distance-based Energy Aware Routing (DEAR) algorithm is proposed to ensure energy efficiency and energy balancing based on theoretical analysis of different energy and traffic models. During the routing process, we consider individual distance as the primary parameter in order to adjust and equalize the energy consumption among involved sensors. The residual energy is also considered as a secondary factor. In this way, all the intermediate nodes will consume their energy at similar rate, which maximizes network lifetime. Simulation results show that the DEAR algorithm can reduce and balance the energy consumption for all sensor nodes so network lifetime is greatly prolonged compared to other routing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless sensor networks based on the IEEE 802.15.4 standard are able to achieve low-power transmissions in the guise of low-rate and short-distance wireless personal area networks (WPANs). The slotted carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) is used for contention mechanism. Sensor nodes perform a backoff process as soon as the clear channel assessment (CCA) detects a busy channel. In doing so they may neglect the implicit information of the failed CCA detection and further cause the redundant sensing. The blind backoff process in the slotted CSMA/CA will cause lower channel utilization. This paper proposes an additional carrier sensing (ACS) algorithm based on IEEE 802.15.4 to enhance the carrier sensing mechanism for the original slotted CSMA/CA. An analytical Markov chain model is developed to evaluate the performance of the ACS algorithm. Both analytical and simulation results show that the proposed algorithm performs better than IEEE 802.15.4, which in turn significantly improves throughput, average medium access control (MAC) delay and power consumption of CCA detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distributed estimation over sensor networks has attracted much attention due to its various applications. The mean-square error (MSE) criterion is one of the most popular cost functions used in distributed estimation, which achieves its optimality only under Gaussian noise. However, impulsive noise also widely exists in real-world sensor networks. Thus, the distributed estimation algorithm based on the minimum kernel risk-sensitive loss (MKRSL) criterion is proposed in this paper to deal with non-Gaussian noise, particularly for impulsive noise. Furthermore, multiple tasks estimation problems in sensor networks are considered. Differing from a conventional single-task, the unknown parameters (tasks) can be different for different nodes in the multitask problem. Another important issue we focus on is the impact of the task similarity among nodes on multitask estimation performance. Besides, the performance of mean and mean square are analyzed theoretically. Simulation results verify a superior performance of the proposed algorithm compared with other related algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Location estimation in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) has received tremendous attention in recent times. Improved technology and efficient algorithms systematically empower WSNs with precise location identification. However, while algorithms are efficient in improving the location estimation error, the factor of the network lifetime has not been researched thoroughly. In addition, algorithms are not optimized in balancing the load among nodes, which reduces the overall network lifetime. In this paper, we have proposed an algorithm that balances the load of computation for location estimation among the anchor nodes. We have used vector-based swarm optimization on the connected dominating set (CDS), consisting of anchor nodes for that purpose. In this algorithm, major tasks are performed by the base station with a minimum number of messages exchanged by anchor nodes and unknown nodes. The simulation results showed that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the network lifetime and reduces the location estimation error. Furthermore, the proposed optimized CDS is capable of providing a global optimum solution with a minimum number of iterations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the enrichment of the entity information in the real world, many networks with attributed nodes are proposed and studied widely. Community detection in these attributed networks is an essential task that aims to find groups where the intra-nodes are much more densely connected than the inter-nodes. However, many existing community detection methods in attributed networks do not distinguish overlapping communities from non-overlapping communities when designing algorithms. In this paper, we propose a novel and accurate algorithm called Node-similarity-based Multi-Label Propagation Algorithm (NMLPA) for detecting overlapping communities in attributed networks. NMLPA first calculates the similarity between nodes and then propagates multiple labels based on the network structure and the node similarity. Moreover, NMLPA uses a pruning strategy to keep the number of labels per node within a suitable range. Extensive experiments conducted on both synthetic and real-world networks show that our new method significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the efficient 3D placement of UAV as an aerial base station in providing wireless coverage for users in a small and large coverage area is investigated. In the case of providing wireless coverage for outdoor and indoor users in a small area, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and K-means with Ternary Search (KTS) algorithms are invoked to find an efficient 3D location of a single UAV with the objective of minimizing its required transmit power. It was observed that a single UAV at the 3D location found using the PSO algorithm requires less transmit power, by a factor of 1/5 compared to that when using the KTS algorithm. In the case of providing wireless coverage for users in three different shapes of a large coverage area, namely square, rectangle and circular regions, the problems of finding an efficient placement of multiple UAVs equipped with a directional antenna are formulated with the objective to maximize the coverage area and coverage density using the Circle Packing Theory (CPT). Then, the UAV efficient altitude placement is formulated with the objective of minimizing its required transmit power. It is observed that the large number of UAVs does not necessarily result in the maximum coverage density. Based on the simulation results, the deployment of 16, 19 and 26 UAVs is capable of providing the maximum coverage density of 78.5%, 82.5% and 80.3% for the case of a square region with the dimensions of 2 km × 2 km, a rectangle region with the dimensions of 6 km × 1.8 km and a circular region with the radius of 1.125 km, respectively. These observations are obtained when the UAVs are located at the optimum altitude, where the required transmit power for each UAV is reasonably small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]