Relocation of mobile wireless sensors in the presence of obstacles

In many applications (e.g military, environment monitoring), wireless sensors are randomly deployed in a given area. Unfortunately, this deployment is not efficient enough to ensure area coverage and network connectivity. Algorithms based on Virtual Forces are used to improve the random initial deployment. In this paper, we want to ensure coverage and network connectivity in a given area containing obstacles. We enhance the Distributed Virtual Forces Algorithm (DVFA) to cope with obstacles. Obstacles are characterized by prohibiting both the physical presence of sensors and the wireless communication. Performance evaluation shows that DVFA provides an efficient deployment even if obstacles exist in the considered area.