Energy Efficient and Cost Effective Localization using VAN (Virtual Anchor Node) in Wireless Sensor Networks

In the field of wireless sensor network, localization is one of the main issues. Localization is a process of finding the location of nodes in a sensor network, which provides the basis for routing, tracking and other communication aspects of network. Hence localization is a significant criterion. In a 2D plane a node requires atleast three anchor nodes location information for localization. One of the main methods to improve localization accuracy is to increase the count of anchor nodes. But this is restricted due to the hardware constraint, cost, and energy consumption and so on. Aim of this paper is to propose an energy efficient and cost effective localization scheme using VAN (Virtual Anchor Node), where a node that wants to localize use controlled flooding technique to get atleast three anchor information. Once any node that receives three anchor nodes information will localize and become VAN that assists other nodes for localization, while the number of AAN (Actual Anchor Node) is same as before. Here the term controlled flooding means, flooding is controlled at two levels; first when request packet reaches VAN. Second, when request packet reaches a node that has stored anchor nodes information but not yet localized. As a result communication overhead is reduced to greater extent.