On the rate of error propagation in multihop range-based localization

Error propagation is a greatly complicated problem arising in multihop sensor localization. In this paper, we focus on how certain key factors in a sensor network affect error propagation for a restricted range-based localization scenario and obtain the significant conclusion that localization errors measured by the Mean Squared Error are propagated at the rate of the cube of the minimal hop count to anchors. A simulation analysis based on actual localization processes and the Cramér-Rao Lower Bound verifies this result.