Distributed computation of coverage in sensor networks by homological methods (Q714652)

The article is devoted to presenting a distributed homology computation algorithm working over a sensor network with the purpose of coverage verification. The authors' results may be summarized in the following statements from the introduction: 1. We provide a provably correct algorithm for distributed computation of homological coverage criteria. 2. The algorithm can recover specific generators, for use in building minimal or power-reducing covers. 3. Most crucially, the algorithm computes homology in an arbitrary coefficient system. This allows for computations over finite fields, which avoids the roundoff errors present in \(\mathbb R\)-coefficients. 4. Simulations seem to indicate that for a unit-disc graph network of points in the plane, all complexes are completely reducible, indicating that homology computation is of linear algorithmic complexity.