Collaborative Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

Determining the localization of nodes in a Wireless Sensor Network is a very important task, which involves collaboration between nodes. Localization is a fundamental service since it is relevant to many applications and to the network main functions. Collaboration is essential to self-localization, so that localization can be accomplished by the nodes themselves, without any human intervention. In this paper, we first analyze the key aspects that have to be considered when designing or choosing a solution for the localization problem. Then, we present the types of current localization algorithms, making a broad comparison among the most relevant algorithms. With this comparative analysis, we aim at identifying a more complete algorithm able to adapt itself to a wide variety of possibilities (number and density of nodes, obstacles and terrain irregularities, network topology, node mobility, etc.).