Using steepest descent method to refine the node positions in wireless sensor networks

Refinement is a necessary and effective step in some node localization schemes of wireless sensor networks (WSN). Suitable refinement procedure can improve the node localization accuracy and raise the robustness of the localization algorithm. However, most existing refinement algorithms are costly duo to complex computation and frequent communication, and may induce serious coverage problem duo to nonconvergent iterations. In view of above facts, Steepest descent method is proposed to be used as the refinement algorithm in this paper, and corresponding simulation experiments are done to testify its feasibility and validity. The results show that steepest descent method can optimize the node positions to a fairish accuracy extent, and compared with existing refinement methods, it outperforms in communication cost, computation cost, and coverage rate.