A Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) usually consists of numerous wireless devices deployed in a region of interest, each of which is capable of collecting and processing environmental information and communicating with neighboring devices. The problem of sensor placement becomes non trivial when we consider environmental factors such as terrain elevations. In this paper, we differentiate a stepwise optimization approach from a generic optimization approach, and show that the former is better suited for sensor placement optimization. Following a stepwise optimization approach, we propose a Crowd-Out Dominance Search (CODS), which makes use of terrain information and intersensor relationship information to facilitate the optimization. Finally, we investigate the effect of terrain irregularity on optimization algorithm performances, and show that the proposed method demonstrates better resistance to terrain complexity than other optimization methods. 
A dominance-based stepwise approach for sensor placement optimization