Relative Localization Systems and Algorithms for Wireless Sensor Networks

Wireless sensor networks (WSN), a novel technology which is considered as one of the four large high-tech industries in the future, can acquire and process information in a large-scale and complicated network and have been proposed for a multitude of diverse applications. Knowing the positions of nodes in sensor networks are essential for many applications. In this paper, the principles and characteristics of relative localization systems and algorithms are discussed by the numbers and in detail and the performance of these algorithms are compared thoroughly based on the analysis of a great deal of latest research results. In addition, the directions of researches in this area are introduced.