ADNL: Accurate distributed node localization algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper deals with the multi-hop localization problem in static Wireless Sensor Networks. The knowledge of geographical positions of nodes is useful in such networks, as it can be used in communication protocols or to provide geographical information of detected events. We present in this paper a new and original method to locate sensor nodes, named ADNL. In our method, each sensor knows anchor nodes positions in its k-hop neighborhood and also distance between neighbor nodes thanks to a technology like TDoA. Nodes with enough anchors in their neighborhood locally run a force-based algorithm so as to deduce their position, and then forward it so as to enable other nodes to locate themselves. We provide extensive simulations under various network topologies, densities, number of anchor nodes and distance estimation errors, so as to present results showing the accuracy of our localization algorithm. ADNL algorithm is shown to be particularly accurate and robust to both distance estimation errors and irregular topologies.