Localization with mobile anchor points in wireless sensor networks

Localization is one of the substantial issues in wireless sensor networks. Several approaches, including range-based and range-free, have been proposed to calculate positions for randomly deployed sensor nodes. With specific hardware, the range-based schemes typically achieve high accuracy based on either node-to-node distances or angles. On the other hand, the range-free mechanisms support coarse positioning accuracy with the less expense. This paper describes a range-free localization scheme using mobile anchor points. Each anchor point equipped with the GPS moves in the sensing field and broadcasts its current position periodically. The sensor nodes obtaining the information are able to compute their locations. With the scheme, no extra hardware or data communication is needed for the sensor nodes. Moreover, obstacles in the sensing fields can be tolerated. The localization mechanism has been implemented in the network simulator ns-2. The simulation results show that our scheme performed better than other range-free mechanisms.