Spatial networks with wireless applications

Many networks have nodes located in physical space, with links more common between closely spaced pairs of nodes. For example, the nodes could be wireless devices and links communication channels in a wireless mesh network. We describe recent work involving such networks, considering effects due to the geometry (convex,non-convex, and fractal), node distribution, distance-dependent link probability, mobility, directivity and interference.Comment: Review article- an amended version with a new title from the origina

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

Range-free selective anchor node center of the smallest communication overlap polygon localization algorithm in wireless networks

International audienceThis paper presents a range-free selective anchor node center of the smallest communication overlap polygon localization algorithm in wireless networks. The algorithm is range-free which does not require ranging devices. To estimate the location of unknown (location unaware) nodes it uses node connectivity based on selected anchor (location aware) nodes. The algorithm first selects appropriate anchor nodes. Then, the True Intersection Points (TIPs) constituting the vertices of the smallest communication overlap polygon (SCOP) of these selected anchor nodes' communication ranges are found. Finally, the location of the unknown node is estimated at the center of the SCOP which is formed from these TIPs. The algorithm performance is evaluated using MatLab simulation and compares favorably to state-of-the-art algorithms: Centroid, improved version of CPE, Mid-perpendicular and CSCOP localization algorithms. The results show the proposed algorithm outperforms other state-of-the-art algorithms in location accuracy and it has reasonable computational complexity

Scalable and Fully Distributed Localization in Large-Scale Sensor Networks

This work proposes a novel connectivity-based localization algorithm, well suitable for large-scale sensor networks with complex shapes and a non-uniform nodal distribution. In contrast to current state-of-the-art connectivity-based localization methods, the proposed algorithm is highly scalable with linear computation and communication costs with respect to the size of the network; and fully distributed where each node only needs the information of its neighbors without cumbersome partitioning and merging process. The algorithm is theoretically guaranteed and numerically stable. Moreover, the algorithm can be readily extended to the localization of networks with a one-hop transmission range distance measurement, and the propagation of the measurement error at one sensor node is limited within a small area of the network around the node. Extensive simulations and comparison with other methods under various representative network settings are carried out, showing the superior performance of the proposed algorithm. © 2017 by the authors

Virtual coordinate based techniques for wireless sensor networks: a simulation tool and localization & planarization algorithms

2013 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Wireless sensor Networks (WSNs) are deployments of smart sensor devices for monitoring environmental or physical phenomena. These sensors have the ability to communicate with other sensors within communication range or with a base station. Each sensor, at a minimum, comprises of sensing, processing, transmission, and power units. This thesis focuses on virtual coordinate based techniques in WSNs. Virtual Coordinates (VCs) characterize each node in a network with the minimum hop distances to a set of anchor nodes, as its coordinates. It provides a compelling alternative to some of the localization applications such as routing. Building a WSN testbed is often infeasible and costly. Running real experiments on WSNs testbeds is time consuming, difficult and sometimes not feasible given the scope and size of applications. Simulation is, therefore, the most common approach for developing and testing new protocols and techniques for sensor networks. Though many general and wireless sensor network specific simulation tools are available, no available tool currently provides an intuitive interface or a tool for virtual coordinate based simulations. A simulator called VCSIM is presented which focuses specifically on Virtual Coordinate Space (VCS) in WSNs. With this simulator, a user can easily create WSNs networks of different sizes, shapes, and distributions. Its graphical user interface (GUI) facilitates placement of anchors and generation of VCs. Localization in WSNs is important for several reasons including identification and correlation of gathered data, node addressing, evaluation of nodes' density and coverage, geographic routing, object tracking, and other geographic algorithms. But due to many constraints, such as limited battery power, processing capabilities, hardware costs, and measurement errors, localization still remains a hard problem in WSNs. In certain applications, such as security sensors for intrusion detection, agriculture, land monitoring, and fire alarm sensors in a building, the sensor nodes are always deployed in an orderly fashion, in contrast to random deployments. In this thesis, a novel transformation is presented to obtain position of nodes from VCs in rectangular, hexagonal and triangular grid topologies. It is shown that with certain specific anchor placements, a location of a node can be accurately approximated, if the length of a shortest path in given topology between a node and anchors is equal to length of a shortest path in full topology (i.e. a topology without any voids) between the same node and anchors. These positions are obtained without the need of any extra localization hardware. The results show that more than 90% nodes were able to identify their position in randomly deployed networks of 80% and 85% node density. These positions can then be used for deterministic routing which seems to have better avg. path length compared to geographic routing scheme called "Greedy Perimeter Stateless Routing (GPSR)". In many real world applications, manual deployment is not possible in exact regular rectangular, triangular or hexagonal grids. Due to placement constraint, nodes are often placed with some deviation from ideal grid positions. Because of placement tolerance and due to non-isotropic radio patterns nodes may communicate with more or less number of neighbors than needed and may form cross-links causing non-planar topologies. Extracting planar graph from network topologies is known as network planarization. Network planarization has been an important technique in numerous sensor network protocols--such as GPSR for efficient routing, topology discovery, localization and data-centric storage. Most of the present planarization algorithms are based on location information. In this thesis, a novel network planarization algorithm is presented for rectangular, hexagonal and triangular topologies which do not use location information. The results presented in this thesis show that with placement errors of up to 30%, 45%, and 30% in rectangular, triangular and hexagonal topologies respectively we can obtain good planar topologies without the need of location information. It is also shown that with obtained planar topology more nodes acquire unique VCs