A New Distributed Range-Free Localization Algorithm for Wireless Networks

Node localization is an essential component of many wireless networks. It can be used to improve routing and enhance the security of a network. Localization can be divided into rangefree and range-based algorithms. Range-based algorithms use measurements such as ToA, TDoA, RSS, and AoA to estimate the distance between two nodes. Range-free algorithms are based on proximity sensing between nodes. Although this is typically less accurate than range-based, it is cheaper and easier to implement. A new range-free scheme is proposed in this paper. Every target forms two sets of anchors. The first set contains one-hop anchors from the target. The second set contains two-hop and three-hop anchors away from the target. Each target uses the intersections between these anchors to estimate its position. This new approach is simple, but is more accurate than DRLS when the anchor ratio is low.