Quantitative Evaluation of Location Systems Techniques for Short-Range RF-Based Sensor Networks

The use of wireless sensor networks has been proposed for a large spectrum of location-dependent applications. Because of the current restrictions on processing power, power supplies and sensor hardware, most of the current systems struggle between accuracy and complexity. Seeking to provide the current location of nodes with a minimum additional cost to each sensor nodes, several location tracking systems have proposed different techniques based on received radio signal strength. In this paper we present a quantitative evaluation of several location tracking systems techniques based on radio signal strength indication through trace-driven simulations. Our work shows that previous assumptions on the limitations of these techniques do not consider the transmission of messages with several signal strengths which improves considerably the accuracy of these systems.