A hybrid localization approach in 3D wireless sensor network

Location information acquisition is crucial for many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. While existing localization approaches mainly focus on 2D plane, the emerging 3D localization brings WSNs closer to reality with much enhanced accuracy. Two types of 3D localization algorithms are mainly used in localization application: the range-based localization and the range-free localization. The range-based localization algorithm has strict requirements on hardware and therefore is costly to implement in practice. The range-free localization algorithm reduces the hardware cost but at the expense of low localization accuracy. On addressing the shortage of both algorithms, in this paper, we develop a novel hybrid localization scheme, which utilizes the range-based attribute RSSI and the range-free attribute hopsize, to achieve accurate yet low-cost 3D localization. As anchor node deployment strategy plays an important role in improving the localization accuracy, an anchor node configuration scheme is also developed in this work by utilizing the MIS (maximal independent set) of a network. With proper anchor node configuration and propagation model selection, using simulations, we show that our proposed algorithm improves the localization accuracy by 38.9% compared with 3D DV-HOP and 52.7% compared with 3D centroid

The 3D Deployment Multi-objective Problem in Mobile WSN: Optimizing Coverage and Localization

International audienceThe deployment of sensor nodes is a critical phase that significantly affects the functioning and performance of the sensor network. Coverage is an important metric reflecting how well the region of interest is monitored. Random deployment is the sim-plest way to deploy sensor nodes but may cause unbalanced deployment and therefore, we need a more intelligent way for sensor deployment. In this paper, we study the positioning of sensor nodes in a WSN in order to maximize the coverage problem and to optimize the localization. First, the problem of deployment is introduced, then we present the latest research works about the different proposed methods. Also, we propose a mathematical formulation and a genetic based approach to solve this problem. Finally, the numerical results of experimentations are presented and discussed. Indeed, this paper presents a genetic algorithm which aims at searching for an optimal or near optimal solution to the coverage holes problem. Our algorithm defines the minimum number and the best locations of the mobile nodes to add after the initial random deployment of the stationary nodes. Compared with random deployment, our genetic algorithm shows significant performance improvement in terms of quality of coverage while optimizing the localization in the sensor network