A Collaborative Localization algorithm for underwater acoustic sensor networks

In this paper, we propose a Multi-Anchor Nodes Collaborative Localization (MANCL) algorithm, a three-dimensional (3D) localization scheme considering anchor nodes and upgrade anchor nodes within two hops for underwater acoustic sensor networks (UASNs). The MANCL algorithm divides the whole localization process into four sub-processes: ordinary node localization process, iterative location estimation process, improved 3D Euclidean distance estimation process and 3D DV-Hop distance estimation process based on two-hop anchor nodes. In the third sub-process, we propose a communication mechanism and a vote mechanism to determine the temporary positions of ordinary nodes. In the fourth sub-process, we use two-hop anchor nodes to help ordinary nodes with localization. We also evaluate and compare the MANCL algorithm with the Large-Scale Localization (LSL) algorithm in terms of localization ratio, average localization error and average energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that the MANCL algorithm can achieve a high localization ratio and reduce the localization error while saving more energy to prolong the network lifetime.