Novel approach for localization in Ad-Hoc sensor networks

Abstract

The ability of a sensor node to move itself or to otherwise influence its location will be critical in sensor networks. Today, the wireless community is putting great effort on the possibility of deploying thousands of tiny sensors all over the place and measuring all kinds of data within. Sensor network is a network of small devices, collaborating with each other to produce a larger sensing task. Most of the current literature on location discovery in wireless and sensor networks assumes the availability of GPS receivers at some nodes or beacon nodes with known position. But as we know having a GPS receiver at sensor nodes may not be feasible due to the limitations of satellite coverage inside the building or due to cost reasons. Further for ad hoc deployment of nodes, it is unreasonable to assume the presence of beacon nodes with prior position information. Hence, the main objective behind this research work is to introduce a localization/positioning method that would be GPS-free and beaconless, and finally we come up with a method called “LRT - Localization using Routing Table” which is also scalable, distributed and able to support the ad hoc deployment of large-scale sensor networks quickly and efficiently.