A Walking Beacon-Assisted Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

The localization of the sensor node is a fundamental problem in sensor networks and can be implemented using powerful and expensive beacons. Beacons, the fewer the better, can acquire their position knowledge either from a GPS device or by virtue of being manually placed. In this paper, we propose two distributed methods to localization of sensor nodes using a single moving beacon where sensor nodes compute their position estimate based on the range-free technique. The first method uses the arrival and departure information of a walking beacon and the second method exploits the variance of the received signal strength (RSS) from the beacon. We provide the upper bound of the estimation error for these methods in an ideal environment. Critical to the location accuracy of sensor nodes are two more parameters, the radio transmission range of the beacon, and how often the beacon broadcasts its position. Simulation results show the location estimate error of sensor nodes applying the proposed two methods. The results are consistent to the theoretical analysis and the average estimate errors could be within one meter.