A selective virtual anchor node positioning scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Localization of sensor nodes is one of the most important issues in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), especially for the applications which requiring the accurate position of the sensed information. In most localization algorithms, a certain number of anchor nodes must be deployed to reach the accuracy of positioning. But in plenty of situations, anchor node´s quantity always is limited by cost, hardware restrict, and so on. In this paper, a selective virtual anchor node positioning algorithm (SVAN-Hop) is proposed. In SVAN-Hop algorithm, a special method is used to select the unknown nodes, and a fixed weight for virtual anchors and real anchors is used in localization phase. Simulation results show that SVAN-Hop achieves greater location accuracy and coverage.