Multi-bit sensing based target localization (MSTL) algorithm in wireless sensor networks

Efficient and accurate target localization is one of the most fundamental problems in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), and has been studied for several years. Due to its simplicity and low energy consumption, binary sensing model is widely used in the literature to achieve fast target localization but with low accuracy. To improve localization accuracy, we propose a novel multi-bit sensing model where multi-bit information is sent by sensors to report the relative distances between a target and the sensors. Based on this sensing model, a new target localization algorithm is proposed, which can improve localization precision by estimating a targets position within a reduced area. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm works well with irregular sensing boundary caused by noise, channel fading, and obstacles. Simulation results show that the multi-bit sensing based target localization (MSTL) algorithm could improve localization accuracy by 50%.