Coverage-Aware Sensor Clustering for Network Lifetime Maximization in Smart Cities

Monitoring mobile targets such as pedestrians and vehicles is a crucial component of smart city infrastructure, supporting applications such as traffic management and urban security. However, few existing works focus on mobile target monitoring when designing clustering schemes for wireless sensor networks (WSNs). In this paper, we propose a sensor clustering strategy aimed at extending the coverage-aware network lifetime of WSNs by considering the real-time locations of mobile targets. We develop a scoring system that evaluates the coverage and energy scores of each sensor, giving higher priority to sensors with better scores for selection as cluster heads (CHs). Comprehensive simulations demonstrate that the proposed scheme surpasses existing protocols, including the low energy adaptive clustering hierarchy (LEACH) and coverage-aware distributed clustering (ECDC), with respect to network coverage lifetime and energy efficiency. The results also highlight the scheme’s superior load-balancing capabilities, which can achieve an optimal balance between energy consumption and coverage.