Analysis of localization algorithms in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

In view of the wireless sensor networks, the positioning technology for unknown nodes are usually divided into two categories: one is the localization algorithm based on distance, such as the RSSI, the other is range-free node localization algorithm, including DV-Hop, APIT and Centroid localization algorithm. Different positioning algorithms may produce positioning error, because they choose their anchor nodes in different ways. This paper analyzes the accuracy of four node localization algorithms in wireless sensor network by comparing the positioning error that is produced from the four common types of positioning algorithms in the same case as the number of locating nodes and anchor nodes with MATLAB-Simulink. Eventually, we come to the conclusion that DV-Hop algorithm with high stability and accurate positioning has less requirement of anchor nodes. In contrast, APIT algorithm with high cost needs a large number of anchor nodes. The cost and the power of the RSSI algorithm are low, but it has great errors in the location. And Centroid algorithm has a good scalability.