AWERProcedia Information Technology & Computer Science 1 (2012) 1375-1387 2 nd World Conference on Information Technology (WCIT-2011) A novel area coverage protocol based on particle swarm optimization algorithm for wireless sensor networks Arash Nikdel a,* , Seyed Mahdi Jameii b , Karim Faez c a Department of Computer Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khouzestan, Iran b Department of Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Qods Branch, Tehran, Iran. c Department of Electrical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran. Abstract One major problem in the area of sensor networks is the coverage problem. The coverage problem deals with the ability of the network to cover a certain area or some certain events. In this paper, we propose an Area Coverage protocol based on Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm (PSOAC) to deal with the problem of area coverage in wireless sensor networks with sparse deployment. In this protocol, proper sensing radius can be determined using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The proposed protocol is able to provide the full coverage in networks with low densities. Moreover, with increasing nodes density, the proposed protocol decreases both nodes sensing radius and energy consumption, thus the proposed protocol maintains more balance in using nodes energy prolongs the network lifetime. We simulate our protocol and simulation results show high efficiency of it. Keywords: Particle Swarm Optimization algorithm, Wireless sensor networks, Area coverage, Adjusting sensing radius, Energy consumption; Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Hafize Keser. ©ϮϬϭϮ AĐadeŵiĐ World EduĐatioŶ & ResearĐh CeŶter. All rights reserǀed. 1. Introduction Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are designed to conduct surveillance tasks, such as monitoring an area, several known/unknown targets and so on. Each sensor has a sensing area in which the interested events can be *ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Arash Nikdel, Department of Computer Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad E-mail address: a.nikdel@khouzestan.srbiau.ac.ir/ Tel:+98 9168534565 University, Khouzestan, Iran