Location estimation of wireless sensor nodes using a few beacon nodes in a 2-D geographical area

Multilateration is a well-known technique for localization in Wireless Sensor Network (WSN). However, due to some assumptions regarding certain parameters and approximations used in case of multilateration algorithm, the computed co-ordinates of a node may be erroneous. The magnitude of error can be cumulative in nature. Two sets of three beacon nodes are placed at two opposite sides of the network and the co-ordinates of sensor nodes with respect to two individual sets of beacon nodes are computed. Based on the computed coordinates with respect to two sets of beacon nodes, the locations of the sensor nodes are determined. It is shown that the co-ordinates computed in this manner have significantly less magnitude of error compared to the magnitude of error which may occur from multilateration process.