Measurement Error Impact on Node Localization of Large Scale Underwater Sensor Networks

This paper studies the impact of distance measurement error on node localization in large scale Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) where only a small percent of nodes are anchor nodes with accurate location information and a large percent of ordinary nodes are to be localized. The recursive localization algorithm is re-evaluated under realistic assumptions that low-cost underwater sensor node may experience large system errors and random errors of distance measurement. Our results show that the errors indeed cause severe performance degradation in localization coverage and normalized localization errors. The sources of distance measurement errors are also identified and their remedies are suggested.