A survey of localization in wireless sensor network

Localization is one of the key techniques in wireless sensor network. The location estimation methods can be classified into target/source localization and node self-localization. In target localization, we mainly introduce the energy-based method. Then we investigate the node self-localization methods. Since the widespread adoption of the wireless sensor network, the localization methods are different in various applications. And there are several challenges in some special scenarios. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of these challenges: localization in non-line-of-sight, node selection criteria for localization in energy-constrained network, scheduling the sensor node to optimize the tradeoff between localization performance and energy consumption, cooperative node localization, and localization algorithm in heterogeneous network. Finally, we introduce the evaluation criteria for localization in wireless sensor network

Efficient AoA-based wireless indoor localization for hospital outpatients using mobile devices

The motivation of this work is to help outpatients find their corresponding departments or clinics, thus, it needs to provide indoor positioning services with a room-level accuracy. Unlike wireless outdoor localization that is dominated by the global positioning system (GPS), wireless indoor localization is still an open issue. Many different schemes are being developed to meet the increasing demand for indoor localization services. In this paper, we investigated the AoA-based wireless indoor localization for outpatients’ wayfinding in a hospital, where Wi-Fi access points (APs) are deployed, in line, on the ceiling. The target position can be determined by a mobile device, like a smartphone, through an efficient geometric calculation with two known APs coordinates and the angles of the incident radios. All possible positions in which the target may appear have been comprehensively investigated, and the corresponding solutions were proven to be the same. Experimental results show that localization error was less than 2.5 m, about 80% of the time, which can satisfy the outpatients’ requirements for wayfinding

Locating sensors with fuzzy logic algorithms

In a system formed by hundreds of sensors deployed in a huge area it is important to know the position where every sensor is. This information can be obtained using several methods. However, if the number of sensors is high and the deployment is based on ad-hoc manner, some auto-locating techniques must be implemented. In this paper we describe a novel algorithm based on fuzzy logic with the objective of estimating the location of sensors according to the knowledge of the position of some reference nodes. This algorithm, called LIS (Localization based on Intelligent Sensors) is executed distributively along a wireless sensor network formed by hundreds of nodes, covering a huge area. The evaluation of LIS is led by simulation tests. The result obtained shows that LIS is a promising method that can easily solve the problem of knowing where the sensors are located.Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-0247

Dead Reckoning Localization Technique for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Localization in wireless sensor networks not only provides a node with its geographical location but also a basic requirement for other applications such as geographical routing. Although a rich literature is available for localization in static WSN, not enough work is done for mobile WSNs, owing to the complexity due to node mobility. Most of the existing techniques for localization in mobile WSNs uses Monte-Carlo localization, which is not only time-consuming but also memory intensive. They, consider either the unknown nodes or anchor nodes to be static. In this paper, we propose a technique called Dead Reckoning Localization for mobile WSNs. In the proposed technique all nodes (unknown nodes as well as anchor nodes) are mobile. Localization in DRLMSN is done at discrete time intervals called checkpoints. Unknown nodes are localized for the first time using three anchor nodes. For their subsequent localizations, only two anchor nodes are used. The proposed technique estimates two possible locations of a node Using Bezouts theorem. A dead reckoning approach is used to select one of the two estimated locations. We have evaluated DRLMSN through simulation using Castalia simulator, and is compared with a similar technique called RSS-MCL proposed by Wang and Zhu .Comment: Journal Paper, IET Wireless Sensor Systems, 201

LIS: Localization based on an intelligent distributed fuzzy system applied to a WSN

The localization of the sensor nodes is a fundamental problem in wireless sensor networks. There are a lot of different kinds of solutions in the literature. Some of them use external devices like GPS, while others use special hardware or implicit parameters in wireless communications. In applications like wildlife localization in a natural environment, where the power available and the weight are big restrictions, the use of hungry energy devices like GPS or hardware that add extra weight like mobile directional antenna is not a good solution. Due to these reasons it would be better to use the localization’s implicit characteristics in communications, such as connectivity, number of hops or RSSI. The measurement related to these parameters are currently integrated in most radio devices. These measurement techniques are based on the beacons’ transmissions between the devices. In the current study, a novel tracking distributed method, called LIS, for localization of the sensor nodes using moving devices in a network of static nodes, which have no additional hardware requirements is proposed. The position is obtained with the combination of two algorithms; one based on a local node using a fuzzy system to obtain a partial solution and the other based on a centralized method which merges all the partial solutions. The centralized algorithm is based on the calculation of the centroid of the partial solutions. Advantages of using fuzzy system versus the classical Centroid Localization (CL) algorithm without fuzzy preprocessing are compared with an ad hoc simulator made for testing localization algorithms. With this simulator, it is demonstrated that the proposed method obtains less localization errors and better accuracy than the centroid algorithm.Junta de Andalucía P07-TIC-0247

Accurate range-free localization for anisotropic wireless sensor networks

Journal ArticlePosition information plays a pivotal role in wireless sensor network (WSN) applications and protocol/ algorithm design. In recent years, range-free localization algorithms have drawn much research attention due to their low cost and applicability to large-scale WSNs. However, the application of range-free localization algorithms is restricted because of their dramatic accuracy degradation in practical anisotropic WSNs, which is mainly caused by large error of distance estimation. Distance estimation in the existing range-free algorithms usually relies on a unified per hop length (PHL) metric between nodes. But the PHL between different nodes might be greatly different in anisotropic WSNs, resulting in large error in distance estimation. We find that, although the PHL between different nodes might be greatly different, it exhibits significant locality; that is, nearby nodes share a similar PHL to anchors that know their positions in advance. Based on the locality of the PHL, a novel distance estimation approach is proposed in this article. Theoretical analyses show that the error of distance estimation in the proposed approach is only one-fourth of that in the state-of-the-art pattern-driven scheme (PDS). An anchor selection algorithm is also devised to further improve localization accuracy by mitigating the negative effects from the anchors that are poorly distributed in geometry. By combining the locality-based distance estimation and the anchor selection, a range-free localization algorithm named Selective Multilateration (SM) is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that SM achieves localization accuracy higher than 0.3r, where r is the communication radius of nodes. Compared to the state-of-the-art solution, SM improves the distance estimation accuracy by up to 57% and improves localization accuracy by up to 52% consequently.This work is partially supported by the National Science Foundation of China (61103203, 61173169, 61332004, and 61420106009), the Hong Kong RGC General Research Fund (PolyU 5106/11E), the International Science & Technology Cooperation Program of China (2013DFB10070), and the EU FP7 QUICK project (PIRSES-GA-2013-612652)

Robust Localization Algorithm Based on Best Length Optimization for Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, a robust range-free localization algorithm by realizing best hop length optimization is proposed for node localization problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). This algorithm is derived from classic DV-Hop method but the critical hop length between any relay nodes is accurately computed and refined in space WSNs with arbitrary network connectivity. In case of network parameters hop length between nodes can be derived without complicated computation and further optimized using Kalman filtering in which guarantees robustness even in complicated environment with random node communication range. Especially sensor fusion techniques used has well gained robustness, accuracy, scalability, and power efficiency even without accurate distance or angle measurement which is more suitable in nonlinear conditions and power limited WSNs environment. Simulation results indicate it gained high accuracy compared with DV-Hop and Centroid methods in random communication range conditions which proves it gives characteristic of high robustness. Also it needs relatively little computation time which possesses high efficiency. It can well solve localization problem with many unknown nosed in the network and results prove the theoretical analysis

A Modified Differential Evolution with Heuristics Algorithm for Non-convex Optimization on Sensor Network Localization

published_or_final_versio