SSMA: simplified slime mould algorithm for optimization wireless sensor network coverage problem

Wireless sensor network (WSN) coverage problem is to think about how to maximize the network coverage to obtain reliable monitoring and tracking services with guaranteed quality of service. In this paper, a simplified slime mould algorithm (SSMA) for solving the WSN coverage problem is proposed. In SSMA, we mainly conducted 13 groups of WSNs coverage optimization experiments and compared them with six well-known meta-heuristic optimization algorithms. The experimental results and Wilcoxon rank-sum test show that the proposed SSMA is generally competitive, outstanding performance and effectiveness. We proposed SSMA algorithm could be helpful to effectively control the network nodes energy, improve the perceived quality of services and extend the network survival time.