Localizaion with a mobile beacon based on virtual beacon selection in Wireless Sensor Networks

Localization algorithms using a mobile beacon have similar effects as the use of many static beacons in terms of improving localization accuracy. However, the localization accuracy would be reduced when the beacon nodes are collinear or almost collinear. In order to fully consider the topology relationship between beacon nodes and between beacon nodes and unknown nodes, the degree of collinearity (DC) and the degree of distribution (DD) are introduced. The algorithm proposed in this paper uses a mobile beacon to traverse the entire network and broadcast periodically the virtual beacon. The unknown node selects the good virtual beacons teams through the DC and DD parameters and uses the Maximum Likelihood Estimation algorithm to estimate its location. Simulation shows the proposed algorithm is efficient.