Experimental Analysis of Area Localization Scheme for Sensor Networks

For large wireless sensor networks, identifying the exact location of every sensor may not be feasible or necessary. A coarse estimate of the sensors' locations is usually sufficient for many applications. An efficient area localization scheme (ALS) has been proposed for large sensor networks. ALS is a range-free localization scheme that tries to estimate the position of a sensor within a certain area rather than its exact location. As the complex calculations are handled by the powerful sinks instead of the sensors, this reduces the energy consumed by the sensors and helps to extend the lifetime of the network. In this paper, we discuss the implementation of ALS using MICAz motes and the localization experiments carried out in both indoor and outdoor environments. We also propose algorithms and techniques to improve the accuracy of ALS in realistic deployment scenarios. We observed that the performance of ALS is comparable or better than other localization schemes that have been implemented while ALS has lower complexity and hardware requirements.