Faulty or malicious anchor detection criteria for distance-based localization

Abstract

The reliability of the localization of Wireless Sensor Networks in presence of errors or malicious data alteration is a challenging research topic: recently, several studies have been carried out to identify, remove or neglect the faulted/malicious nodes. This paper addresses the capability of a network, composed of range-capable nodes and anchor nodes (i.e., nodes that know their position), to detect a faulty or malicious alteration of the information provided by the anchor nodes. Specifically, we consider biases for the position of anchor nodes that alter the localization of the network, and we provide conditions under which the nodes are able to detect the event, with particular reference to two distance-based localization algorithms, namely trilateration and Shadow Edge Localization Algorithm.