A High Energy Efficient Localization Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks Using Directional Antenna

Directional antenna offers various benefits for wireless sensor networks, such as increased spatial reuse ratio and reduced energy consumption. Numerous localization schemes using anchor nodes equipped with omni-directional antenna to transmit beacon information have been proposed. However, the radiated RF signal from an omni-directional antenna is easier to be interfered by wide range of environment noise, which leads to greater localization error. In this paper, we tackle the problems in estimating location of randomly deployed sensor nodes with low gain omni-directional antennas. Since directional antenna concentrates energy on a particularly direction with a high gain and narrow covering area, we propose a high accuracy, energy efficient, and low cost localization scheme using a mobile anchor node equipped with a directional antenna. After investigating the effect of directional antenna on wireless sensor networks, we show how the location estimation problem can be solved using geometric characteristics on a 2D plane with directional antenna. Our localization scheme is verified by OPNET simulation software. The result shows that the proposed localization algorithm has higher accuracy and energy efficiency than other localization schemes.