A Distributed Localization Algorithm Based on Random Diffusion in WSN

In many applications of Wireless Sensor Networks, it is crucial to know the location of sensor nodes. The distribution of the sensor nodes in many scenes is not uniform. However, it is impossible to equip all nodes with GPS receivers or configure the location for each node manually. Thus many localization methods have been proposed, such as the classical multi-dimensional scaling(MDS) localization algorithm. However, it has a low accuracy in large scale of sensor network with a lot of nodes. Thus, a random diffusion distributed localization algorithm is proposed in this paper. Results of simulations show that all the nodes can find their positions in 15 rounds when the network has 200 nodes in a square network. The localization algorithm has less running time, and provides a lower complexity than the classical MDS algorithm. The precision of this localization technique is restricted by the number of anchor nodes, communication radius of sensor node and the connectivity of network.