Classification of localization algorithms for wireless sensor network: A survey

Localization is an active field of research in wireless sensor networks WSNs. The information of exact physical location of the sensor nodes in WSNs is useful for various application e.g. intrusion detection, target tracking, environmental monitoring and network services etc. In this paper we present the classification and comparative study of localization algorithms. The goal of our consideration is to analyze, how these localization algorithms work in order to increase the life span of network nodes in harsh environments like oil fields, gas fields, forests, chemical factories and underground mines etc. and how to find the position of mobile node with Distributed, Range-based and Beacon-based Localization technique in harsh environments. Furthermore this paper also highlights some issues experienced by these localization techniques.