Bayesian Multidimensional Scaling for Location Awareness in Hybrid-Internet of Underwater Things

Localization of sensor nodes in the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT) is of considerable significance due to its various applications, such as navigation, data tagging, and detection of underwater objects. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a hybrid Bayesian multidimensional scaling (BMDS) based localization technique that can work on a fully hybrid IoUT network where the nodes can communicate using either optical, magnetic induction, and acoustic technologies. These communication technologies are already used for communication in the underwater environment; however, lacking localization solutions. Optical and magnetic induction communication achieves higher data rates for short communication. On the contrary, acoustic waves provide a low data rate for long-range underwater communication. The proposed method collectively uses optical, magnetic induction, and acoustic communication-based ranging to estimate the underwater sensor nodes’ final locations. Moreover, we also analyze the proposed scheme by deriving the hybrid Cramer-Rao lower bound (H-CRLB). Simulation results provide a complete comparative analysis of the proposed method with the literature.