A Novel Hybrid Node Localization Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

Node self-localization is one of the supporting technologies in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). In this study, a distributed hybrid localization algorithm based on divide-and-conquer and refinement method is proposed. Firstly, the effect of ranging error in the Received Signal Strength (RSS) model on node localization is analyzed and the topology relations of anchors and unknown nodes are derived when the least localization error is achieved and then, the localization-union scheme is designed and refinement method is presented to improve the estimate accuracy. Finally, the simulation results prove that our proposed algorithm has the merits of superior performance, simple design and less overhead. Especially, it can use sparse anchors to achieve high localization accuracy.