Performance evaluation of linear and circular arrays in wireless sensor network localization

Direction of Arrival (DOA) is one of the positioning techniques that can be used to localize the position of sensor nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This paper presents a comparison between linear and circular array geometry in DOA estimation using MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC). A full analytical model for each geometry is developed and a comparative study of the performance of both array geometries is carried out. The numerical comparative study shows the advantages and drawbacks of each method under different sensor array and signal conditions. This comparison concentrates on several attributes which are noise level, beamwidth, and accuracy for localization in WSNs.