Balanced rate area coverage algorithm

In order to maximize lifetime of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), a balanced rate area coverage algorithm (BRACA) is presented, which aims at the problem of energy uniformity and balanced coverage. This algorithm introduces the idea of balanced coverage rate. And it considers the sensors' balance about target area coverage rate and the residual energy as filtering factors. By adjusting the ratio of sensor's residual energy to its average coverage rate, we can find a sensor subset with maximum uncorrelation and minimum cost, which achieves area coverage using nodes as few as possible. Experimental results show that BRACA has better computational efficiency. The ε-coverage sensor subset can prolong network lifetime effectively due to consuming the less and balanced energy in the premise of ensuring the network coverage of no less than 90% in the WSNs.