# Coverage Protocols for Wireless Sensor Networks: Review and Future Directions

## TL;DR

This paper reviews various coverage protocols in wireless sensor networks, classifies them into categories, and discusses open issues and future research directions for realistic and efficient coverage solutions.

## Contribution

It introduces a taxonomy for coverage protocols in WSNs, classifies existing protocols, and highlights open challenges and future directions in the field.

## Key findings

- Classification of coverage protocols into three categories
- Thorough review of protocols based on coverage techniques
- Discussion of open issues like realistic models and sensor localization

## Abstract

The coverage problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) can be generally defined as a measure of how effectively a network field is monitored by its sensor nodes. This problem has attracted a lot of interest over the years and as a result, many coverage protocols were proposed. In this survey, we first propose a taxonomy for classifying coverage protocols in WSNs. Then, we classify the coverage protocols into three categories (i.e. coverage aware deployment protocols, sleep scheduling protocols for flat networks, and cluster-based sleep scheduling protocols) based on the network stage where the coverage is optimized. For each category, relevant protocols are thoroughly reviewed and classified based on the adopted coverage techniques. Finally, we discuss open issues (and recommend future directions to resolve them) associated with the design of realistic coverage protocols. Issues such as realistic sensing models, realistic energy consumption models, realistic connectivity models and sensor localization are covered.