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An Online Distributed Boundary Detection and Classification Algorithm For Mobile Sensor Networks
An Online Distributed Boundary Detection and Classification Algorithm For Mobile Sensor Networks
Regular Article
Abstract– We present a novel online distributed boundary detection and classification algorithm in order to improve
accuracy of boundary detection and classification for mobile sensor networks. This algorithm is developed by incorporating
a boundary detection algorithm and our newly proposed boundary error correction algorithm. It is a fully distributed
algorithm based on the geometric approach allowing to remove boundary errors without recursive process and global
synchronization. Moreover, the algorithm allows mobile nodes to identify their states corresponding to their positions
in network topologies, leading to self-classification of interior and exterior boundaries of network topologies. We have
demonstrated effectiveness of this algorithm in both simulation and real-world experiments and proved that the accuracy
of the ratio of correctly identified nodes over the total number of nodes is 100%.
Keywords– Distributed boundary detection, Distributed boundary classification, Mobile sensor network.
30 REV Journal on Electronics and Communications, Vol. 7, No. 1–2, January–June, 2017
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2 Boundary Detection
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28 29 73
16 43
27 23
34 33 2
39
70
74 Given a mobile sensor network consisting of N nodes
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24 1 3 40
68 75
in which each node is a mobile sensor node capable of
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26 22 14 42
measuring relative distance of its neighbouring nodes
4 76
25
21
5
6
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65
90
inside its limited sensing range rc and carrying out
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peer-to-peer communication with nodes inside its com-
20 16 66
14 95
48
46 12 7 58
78
munication range. In reality, the communication range
60 63 89
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11
62
is greater than the sensing range, so we assume that if
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13
47
18
17
8 61
79 91
two nodes are inside sensing range of each other, they
45 10 9
55
80 88 can communicate to exchange information.
49 54 83 84
50 52 53 94 Geometric configuration of a mobile sensor network
93 85
12 51 92 81 87 depends on spatial distribution of the nodes, which is
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99
96
98
86
82
considered in 2-dimensional space. The outer shape of
11
the geometric configuration is defined as its boundary.
Figure 1. A demonstration of the local boundary detection and clas- Nodes on the boundary are called as boundary nodes
sification for a network with 100 nodes. The network is bounded by while the others are called as interior nodes. Bounda-
an exterior boundary (blue polygon) established by outer boundary
10
1 2
nodes (magenta) 3 4
and boundary 5
edges 6
(blue). 7
Four voids 8
inside the 9 ries10can be classified into exterior boundaries or interior
network are bounded by interior boundaries (green polygons) formed boundaries in which a void inside the configuration is
by inner boundary nodes (red) and boundary edges (green). bounded by an interior boundary. Nodes inside sen-
sing range of node i are called its neighbours, Ni . A
connectivity between nodes i and j is denoted by eij ,
However, it exists bugs of the boundary detection algo- which is positive if j ∈ Ni or zero if j ∈/ Ni .
rithm because the algorithm is not purely distributed
when using a recursive method with the global syn-
chronization for resetting the suppressed error status. 2.1 Boundary Detection Method
In another approach, each node of MSNs uses only A local boundary detection algorithm presented in [11]
communication to collect information from its three- allows node i to identify itself as either a boundary
hop neighbours to construct its own contours, so it node or an interior node. Node i has neighbours Ni
does not need knowledge of relative distance between sorted in a cyclic order. Each pair of two adjacent neig-
jk
nodes [12]. Thanks to status of contours, a node is hbours ( j, k ) make a sector with an angle θi classified
capable of identifying itself whether it is a boundary into two types of sector as follows:
node. In [13], authors extended the idea of isocontour • Missing Sector: A sector ( j, k ) is called a missing
and proposed a boundary detection algorithm using sector if nodes i and j are not connected, e jk = 0, or
two-hop neighbours to build its isocontour. if the angle between them is greater than or equal
In this paper, we consider the boundary detection jk jk
to π, θi ≥ π. The angle θi is called as missing
and classification problem for MSNs. The shortcoming
sector angle.
of boundary detection errors in [11] motivates our
• Triangle sector: A sector ( j, k ) is called a triangle
research on developing a fully distributed boundary
sector if nodes i and j are connected, e jk > 0. In
detection and classification algorithm based on a ge-
this case, nodes i, j, k form a triangle.
ometric topology approach. This paper is a compre-
hensive extension of our earlier work in [14]. In [14], A set of consecutive sectors in node i’s cyclic order
we presented an improved boundary detection algo- is denoted by Pi . Node i uses states of sectors in Pi to
rithm from the original algorithm in [11] by adding classify itself as follows:
boundary error correction algorithm (BEC), allowing • Interior node: A node is self-labeled as an interior
nodes to self-identify their states as either interior nodes node if its all sectors are triangle sectors.
or boundary nodes. In this paper, we have further • Boundary node: A node is self-labeled as a boundary
developed this algorithm with the boundary classi- node if it has at least one missing sector. The edges
fication (BC) algorithm to let boundary nodes self- on the boundary node’s missing sector are called
classify as outer or inner boundary nodes, leading to as boundary edges.
self-classification of interior or exterior boundaries of Because a boundary is a closed-loop inter-
mobile sensor network topologies. Last but not least, connectivity established by boundary edges in
we have examined and evaluated this online distributed which each boundary node is connected with two
boundary detection and classification in both simu- neighbouring ones, the algorithm to identify boundary
lations and real-world experiments to prove that the errors is illustrated in Figure 3 and defined as follows:
accuracy of the algorithm is 100%.
Definition 1 (Boundary error). A boundary node is seen
The paper is organised as follows: Section 2 addresses
as a boundary error if it is directly or indirectly connected
a boundary detection algorithm. The boundary clas-
with an interior node through boundary edges.
sification algorithm is described in Section 3. Experi-
ment results are presented and discussed in Section 4. In other words, boundary node i with a missing
Section 5 draws conclusion. sector ( j, k) ∈ Pi becomes a boundary error if at least
jk
θi ≥ 1 i θi ≥
i 1 1
P. D. Hung et al.: An Online Distributed Boundary Detection and Classification Algorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks 31
4
k k j
k 3 j k k j j
j
5
i i
2 6 jk
jk
θi ≥ i θi < i g
i i g
1 jk jk
(a) Interior node (b) Boundary node with θi ≥ π (c) Boundary node with θi < π (d) Both i and g are interior nodes
j k
2
g
1i g
g
jk
i θi < ekg= 1 ekg= 0 ekg= 1
j
5 j
3 j
j ℓ kk
4 k
ℓ
i
i i
32 REV Journal on Electronics and Communications, Vol. 7, No. 1–2, January–June, 2017
π Input: ( j, k) ∈ Pi , Ni , Nj , Nk
φ= − Output: etrianglesector
2 2 Initialization: Cond1 = 0, Cond2 = 0, Cond3 = 0
etrianglesector ← 0
Figure 5. Subset of neighbouring nodes jk π
[ Nij , Nik ] = AdjacentNeighbours(θi , )
2
for ` ∈ Nij do
• There exists node ` ∈ Nij connected to node k, for m ∈ Nik do
ek` = 1, so that nodes k, ` have at least one common Get N` , Nm
neighbour g not in Ni , Nk\i ∩ N`\i 6= ∅. if (e jm = 1) ∧ ( Nj\i ∩ Nm\i 6= ∅) then
Cond1 = 1
if (ek` = 1) ∧ ( Nk\i ∩ N`\i 6= ∅) then
(
∃` ∈ Nij : (ek` = 1) ∧ ( Nk\i ∩ N`\i 6= ∅)
1
cond2 = Cond2 = 1
0
Otherwise
(2) if (e`m = 1) ∧ ( N`\i ∩ Nm\i 6= ∅) then
The pair (i, g) of node k contain two triangle sectors Cond3 = 1
(i, `) ∈ Pk and ( g, `) ∈ Pk , so it is not a missing sector.
Thus, node k is not a boundary node of the quadrangle; if (Cond1 = 1) ∨ (Cond2 = 1) ∨ (Cond3 = 1) then
etrianglesector = 1
that is, it is an interior node.
• There exists nodes ` ∈ Nij and m ∈ Nik connected
together, e`k = 1, so that they have at least one The core of the BEC is an e-triangle sector detection
common neighbour g not in Ni , N`\i ∩ Nm\i 6= ∅. algorithm as shown in Algorithm 1. The algorithm
considers a missing sector ( j, k) ∈ Pi . It uses a function
jk
1
∃` ∈ Nij , m ∈ Nik : (e`m = 1)∧ AdjacentNeigbhours(θi , π2 ) to get node i’s neighbours
cond3 = ( N`\i ∩ Nm\i 6= ∅) (3) Nij and Nik in its areas Sij and Sik , respectively. In this
algorithm, all existing edges {e jm , ek` , e`m } on Nij and
0 Otherwise
Nik are searched and checked whether the conditions
The pair ( j, k ) of node g contain at least two triangle of an e-triangle sector is satisfied. If (Cond1 = 1) ∨
sectors ( j, `) ∈ Pg and (m, `) ∈ Pg , thus it is not a (Cond2 = 1) ∨ (Cond3 = 1), it returns etrianglesector =
missing sector. Therefore, node g is not a boundary 1, confirming that the missing sector ( j, k) ∈ Pi is an
node of the quadrangle; that is, it is an interior node. e-triangle sector.
This algorithm only uses sensing to identify sets Ni
Proposition 1 (Boundary error). A boundary error ap-
and Pi , and one-hop communication between node i
pears on a boundary node if and only if it has an e-triangle
and its neighbours j, k, `, m to determine sets Nj , Nk , N` ,
sector.
and Nm respectively, so it is fully distributed in mea-
Proof : If node i has an e-triangle sector ( j, k ) ∈ Pi , it ning that each node only uses local information from
satisfies that (cond1 = 1) ∨ (cond2 = 1) ∨ (cond3 = 1). It itself and its neighbours to classify itself as a boun-
means that one of three nodes j, k, g is an interior node. dary node or an interior node. The algorithm does
According to the definition 1, node i is a boundary not require global synchronization to periodically reset
error. the suppressed error status on the nodes. Therefore,
If a boundary error appears on a missing sector computational complexity of this algorithm is O( Ni2 ),
( j, k) ∈ Pi formed in a quadrangle {i, j, k, g}, one of but only O(1) bits/node/round of communication is
three nodes j, k, g must be not a boundary node of the used to detect an e-triangle sector.
quadrangle. Thus, one of pairs (i, g) of node j, (i, g) of
node k, and (`, m) of node g is not a missing sector; that
is, it satisfies the one of the conditions for an e-triangle
3 Boundary Classification
sector, (cond1 = 1) ∨ (cond2 = 1) ∨ (cond3 = 1). Hence,
In this section, we present a boundary classification algo-
the missing sector ( j, k) ∈ Pi is an e-triangle sector. This
rithm (BC) allowing a node to classify itself whether it is
completes the proof.
on an interior or exterior boundary. Figure 1 illustrates
Proposition 2 (Boundary error correction). If all the a result of this algorithm applied for a network of 100
nodes with e-triangle sectors are labeled as interior nodes, nodes. Before presenting the algorithm, we remain the
there does not exist any boundary error in the network. concepts of a boundary as follows:
Proof : We use proof by contradiction. Assume that all Definition 3 (Boundary). A boundary is a closed-loop
the nodes with e-triangle sectors are labeled as interior inter-connectivity containing a sequence of boundary nodes
m
i i
P. D. Hung et al.: An Online Distributed Boundary Detection and Classification Algorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks 33
g g g
g
j k j k
j jk j k
k
S N S ℓ N ℓ m m
m
i i
i i i
π
φ= −
(a) node j is an interior node 2 2(b) node k is an interior node (c) node g is an interior node
Figure 6. Scenarios for an e-triangle sector ( j, k) ∈ Pi where node i’s quadrangle is divided by a triangle sector: (a) (m, g) ∈ Pj ; (b) (`, g) ∈ Pgk ;
(c) (`, g) ∈ Pg . g
k k j
j message from a side of its missing sector to another side
j
k through a set of boundary nodes as illustrated in Figure
N S N S N
7. The procedure can be described as follows. ℓ In order m
ℓ m
to classify whether boundary node i with a missing
i
sector ( j, k) is an inner or outer one, node i falls into i
i π mode using multi-hop communication to gather
active
φ= −
2 2 sector angles Θ and number of boundary nodes
missing
nb on the boundary. It broadcasts a message, containing
jk
Θ and nb with initialization Θ = θi and nb = 1,
respectively, for path discovery from node j to node
k through the ad-hoc network of the mobile nodes. A
Figure 7. Boundary classification algorithm: A node i = 1 has
a missing sector (2, 26). The message broadcasted by node i is node broadcasting the message is called a transmitter.
forwarded from node 2 to node 26 via the boundary edges (green). All neighbours of a transmitter can receive the message,
Only boundary nodes (red) {2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 26} on the green polygon but a boundary node on its common boundary edge is
are allowed to forward the message.
allowed to forward the message with updated variables
Θ and nb . Updating variables is performed by adding
such that each node is connected with two neighbouring ones the missing sector angle of the transmitter to Θ and
though two boundary edges. increasing nb by one. Thank to the message forwarded
to reach node k, node i has possibility of identifying the
Given a boundary established by nb boundary nodes sequence of boundary nodes on the path and checking
and denote Θ as the sum of the missing sector angles the boundary classification condition by values Θ and
on the boundary. As mentioned above, there are two nb . Node i is self-labeled as an inner boundary node
typical boundaries: interior and exterior boundary. if Θ = (nb − 2) ∗ π or an outer boundary node if
• Interior boundary: An interior boundary bounds a Θ = (nb + 2) ∗ π, and rebroadcasts a message contai-
void inside the geometric configuration of a mobile ning the list through the path in order to update the
sensor network, so its missing sector angles are classification states for all boundary nodes on the list.
interior angles of the polygon established by the When a boundary node has been self-labeled, it works
boundary. According to polygon theorem, the sum in passive mode while the self-classification is happening
of the interior angles of the polygon with nb edges on other boundary nodes. Note that, a node belongs
equals to (nb − 2) ∗ π. Hence, the interior boundary to some difference boundaries if it has some missing
has property: Θ = (nb − 2) ∗ π. Nodes on an sectors.
interior boundary are called inner boundary nodes. Unlike to the algorithm in [11], in our algorithm,
• Exterior boundary: An exterior boundary is outer every boundary node can be considered as a root of the
shape of the geometric configuration, so its missing boundary for self-classification when it is activated in
sector angles are complement of interior angles of the active mode. The boundary classification algorithm
the polygon established by the boundary. Hence, uses multi-hop communication, so it requests the com-
the exterior boundary has property: Θ = nb ∗ 2π − munication complexity O(nb ), where nb is number of
(nb − 2) ∗ π = (nb + 2) ∗ π. Nodes on an exterior boundary nodes on the boundary.
boundary are called outer boundary nodes.
In summary, a boundary can be classified as an
interior boundary if it has Θ = (nb − 2) ∗ π or an 4 Experiments and Discussions
exterior boundary if it has Θ = (nb + 2) ∗ π. Any
boundary node can be classified as either an inner or 4.1 Simulation
outer boundary node if it knows Θ and nb . On a node, Assume that each node has ability of identifying
the pair (Θ, nb ) can be obtained by sending a "ping" its nearest neighbours and measuring their relative
34 REV Journal on Electronics and Communications, Vol. 7, No. 1–2, January–June, 2017
105 105
With BEC Accuracy of BC algorithm
100 100
95 95
90 90
85 85
80 80
100 100 200 200 300 300 100 200 300
Number of robots Number of robots
Figure 8. Accuracy of the online local boundary detection algo- Figure 9. Accuracy of the boundary classification algorithm
rithm
0.7
100 robots with recursive algorithm 200 robots with recursive algorithm 0.8 300 robots with recursive algorithm
0.4 100 robots with BEC algorithm 200 robots with BEC algorithm 300 robots with BEC algorithm
0.6 0.7
0.5 0.6
0.3
0.5
Time(s)
Time(s)
Time(s)
0.4
0.4
0.2 0.3
0.3
0.2
0.1 0.2
0.1 0.1
0 0 0
7 0 6 2 10 1 0 3 0 5 11.5 10.5 5.5 13 3.5 7 6 13 0.5 1.5 4 12 9 10.3 6.7 3.7 9.3 6.3 3 7.7
Boundary error rate on each scenario Boundary error rate on each scenario Boundary error rate on each scenario
2.5
100 robots with recursive algorithm 5 300 robots with recursive algorithm
100 robots with BEC algorithm 200 robots with recursive algorithm 300 robots with BEC algorithm
200 robots with BEC algorithm
5
2
4
4
1.5
Time(s)
Time(s)
3
Time(s)
3
1 2
2
0.5 1 1
0 0 0
7 0 6 2 10 1 0 3 0 5 11.5 10.5 5.5 13 3.5 7 6 13 0.5 1.5 4 12 9 10.3 6.7 3.7 9.3 6.3 3 7.7
Boundary error rate on each scenario Boundary error rate on each scenario Boundary error rate on each scenario
105 105
Ratio of correctly identified robots to the total (%)
100 100
95 95
90 90
85 85
80 80
75 75
70 70
65 65
60 60
Figure 12. Accuracy of the boundary detection algorithm over Figure 13. Accuracy of the boundary detection algorithm over
time in simulation with 50 robots time in real experiment with 14 robots
localisation within limited sensing range rc = 1m. Two information with delay communication time between
connected nearest neighbouring nodes can exchange them limited by Tm .
P. D. Hung et al.: An Online Distributed Boundary Detection and Classification Algorithm for Mobile Sensor Networks 35
formation and network sensing,” in Intelligent Robots Pham Duy Hung received B.Sc. degree and
and Systems (IROS 2014), 2014 IEEE/RSJ International M.Sc. degree in Electronics and Telecommu-
Conference on. IEEE, 2014, pp. 1161–1167. nication from University of Engineering and
[2] Y. Keung, B. Li, and Q. Zhang, “The intrusion detection Technology (UET), Hanoi, Vietnam in 2003
in mobile sensor network,” in Proceedings of the eleventh and 2006, respectively. He is currently pur-
suing the PhD degree in Robotics at UET. His
ACM international symposium on Mobile ad hoc networking research interests include distributed control
and computing. ACM, 2010, pp. 11–20. of multi-agent systems with emphases of de-
[3] S. P. Fekete, A. Kröller, D. Pfisterer, S. Fischer, and ployment, exploration, coverage, and multiple
C. Buschmann, Neighborhood-Based Topology Recognition target tracking.
in Sensor Networks. Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer Berlin
Heidelberg, 2004, pp. 123–136.
[4] A. Kröller, S. P. Fekete, D. Pfisterer, and S. Fischer,
“Deterministic boundary recognition and topology ex-
traction for large sensor networks,” in Proceedings of the
seventeenth annual ACM-SIAM symposium on Discrete algo-
rithm. Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics,
2006, pp. 1000–1009.
[5] Y. Wang, J. Gao, and J. S. Mitchell, “Boundary recog-
nition in sensor networks by topological methods,” in
Proceedings of the 12th annual international conference on
Mobile computing and networking. ACm, 2006, pp. 122–
133.
[6] O. Saukh, R. Sauter, M. Gauger, and P. J. Marrón, “On
boundary recognition without location information in
wireless sensor networks,” ACM Transactions on Sensor Tran Quang Vinh is an Associate Professor at
Networks (TOSN), vol. 6, no. 3, p. 20, 2010. the University of Engineering and Technology
[7] W.-C. Chu and K.-F. Ssu, “Decentralized boundary de- (UET), Hanoi. He is currently the head of
tection without location information in wireless sensor department of Electronics and Computer En-
networks,” in 2012 IEEE Wireless Communications and gineering. His interests include intelligent ro-
Networking Conference (WCNC). IEEE, 2012, pp. 1720– botics, fuzzy logics, sensor fusion, networked
robotics, computer architecture, instrumenta-
1724. tion, and control engineering.
[8] A. Dabba and R. Beghdad, “Bcp: A border coverage
protocol for wireless sensor networks,” in Science and
Information Conference (SAI), 2014. IEEE, 2014, pp. 632–
640.
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recognition in wireless sensor networks,” Journal of Inno-
vation in Digital Ecosystems, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 1–14, 2016.
[10] L.-H. Zhao, W. Liu, H. Lei, R. Zhang, and Q. Tan,
“The detection of boundary nodes and coverage holes
in wireless sensor networks,” Mobile Information Systems,
vol. 2016, 2016.
[11] J. McLurkin and E. D. Demaine, “A distributed boun-
dary detection algorithm for multi-robot systems,” in
2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots
and Systems, Oct 2009, pp. 4791–4798.
[12] W.-C. Chu and K.-F. Ssu, “Location-free boundary de-
tection in mobile wireless sensor networks with a dis-
tributed approach,” Computer Networks, vol. 70, pp. 96 – Trung Dung Ngo got Ph.D. degree in Electri-
cal and Electronic Engineering (Robotics), Aal-
112, 2014. borg University in 2008, M.Sc. degree in Com-
[13] B. Huang, W. Wu, G. Gao, and T. Zhang, “Recognizing puter Systems Engineering (Robotics), Univer-
boundaries in wireless sensor networks based on local sity of Southern Denmark in 2004, and B.Sc.
connectivity information,” International Journal of Distri- degree from Vietnam National University, Ha-
buted Sensor Networks, 2014. noi in 2000. He is currently with the Univer-
[14] P. D. Hung, T. Q. Vinh, and T. D. Ngo, “An online sity of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) where he
local boundary detection and classification algorithm for is the founder and head of the More-Than-
networked multi-robot systems,” in 2016 International One Robotics laboratory (www.morelab.org)
Conference on Advanced Technologies for Communications and the lead researcher of the Centre for Ex-
cellence in Robotics and Industrial Automation. Before joining UPEI,
(ATC), Oct 2016, pp. 253–258. he was the faculty member of the Department of Electronic Systems,
[15] ——, “A scalable, decentralised large-scale network of Aalborg University, and the Faculty of Science, University of Brunei.
mobile robots for multi-target tracking,” in Intelligent His research interests include multi-robot systems, modular robotics,
Autonomous Systems 13. Springer, 2014, pp. 621–637. and human-robot cooperation. He is an active member of IEEE.