Location Discovery for Three-Dimensional Sensor-Actor Networks Using Alternating Combination Quadrilateration

Location discovery is to determine the coordinates of nodes in a sensor-actor networks which refer to a group of sensors and actors linked by wireless medium to perform distributed sensing and acting tasks. Most previously proposed algorithms to the problem assume that nodes are deployed in planar area. However, these algorithms are unable to locate nodes of three-dimensional networks. In this paper, we present an alternating combination quadrilateration algorithm based on the relative position of nodes for three-dimensional deployment. Our algorithm determines the location of unknown nodes by employing nonoutlier tetrahedrons, weighted function and weighted polyhedron. This algorithm can also be applied to two-dimensional networks. Furthermore, it can significantly improve the localization accuracy. Numerical simulations verify its performance and robustness