Impact of the range and geometry estimation in the accuracy of the passive TDOA algorithm

The positioning ability is essential in mobile networks. Providing the position of entities is in general a complex task that becomes especially hard in ad hoc networks. In these networks, the topology cannot be planned and network nodes usually present restrictions in terms of computation capabilities and autonomy that constrain the network lifetime. Passive algorithms have been proposed for minimizing the impact of location services in the network, i.e. reducing the location traffic and extending the network life. However, the accuracy of passive algorithms tends to be worse than the accuracy for active approaches. This paper studies the impact of several proposals focused on improving the accuracy of the passive TDOA algorithm. Results indicate that weighing the ordinary least squares algorithm with the appropriate factors could be enough for improving the accuracy of the algorithm in some scenarios.