Distributed location detection in wireless sensor networks

A distributed location detection problem in wireless sensor networks (WSNs) with M anchors and one node is considered in this paper. In the presence of the transmitting node at a known location, each anchor receives a noisy signal in the presence of node. In the absence of the node, the anchors receive only noise. Each anchor makes a decision as to whether the node is present or not by using a Neyman-Pearson detector. The bit denoting the decision is transmitted to a fusion center (FC). If an anchor detects the node, a bit “1” will be sent; otherwise, a bit “0” will be sent. The FC will count the number of “1”s and “0”s, and declares the node present if it receives at least K “1”s from the anchors, where K ≤ M is a design parameter. We also consider the case of detecting a node in a known region, and detecting one node of interest with multiple interfering nodes. In comparison to the centralized location detection scheme, the distributed scheme benefits from both time and energy efficiency. Simulation results show that the choice of K depends on the requirement of the overall probability of false alarm.