An assisting localization method for wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), sensor location plays a critical role in many applications. Aiming at that all the nodes in sensor networks need to be located, the paper presents an assisting localization method which locates the sensor nodes with respect to the outside reference signal sources and can achieve efficient location discovery without using beacons. We give the localization models based on TDOA, TOA and AOA. Despite the measurement errors, the method provides sufficient location information and accuracy to support basic network functions. Furthermore the method based on AOA estimation model does not increase the complexity or cost of construction of the sensor nodes. Extensive simulation experiment results show that the proposed method can locate the sensor nodes effectively