Review of angle of arrival (AOA) estimations through received signal strength indication (RSSI) for wireless sensors network (WSN)

Awareness of the physical location of each node is required by the many wireless sensor network (WSN) applications. There are various tracking schemes available such as time-of-flight, time difference of arrival and angle of arrival. This review paper focuses and describes previous related work regarding of the angle of arrival (AOA) estimations in particular through received signal strength indication (RSSI). AOA estimation is useful in tracking the desired signal and also improving the signal reception for movable users. With the AOA detection, the beam pattern of the antenna system can be reconfigured either mechanically or electrically to improve the signal reception. The AOA estimation with RSSI offers less complexity since the phase information of the signal will not be used to calculate the angle as usually practiced in the traditional phased array antenna systems. Hence this review focuses on identifying the advantages and disadvantages in AOA estimation through RSSI. The potential future direction of this research will be proposed at the end of this review.