AMobile-Beacon-Assisted Sensor Network Localization Based on RSS and Connectivity Observations

Determining the physical positions of sensors has been a fundamental and crucial problem in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Due to the inherent characteristics of WSNs, extremely limited resources available at each low-cost and tiny sensor node, connectivity-based range-free solutions could be a better choice to feature a low overall system cost. However, localization by means of mere connectivity may underutilize the proximity information available from neighborhood sensing. Although Received Signal Strength (RSS) values are irregular and highly dynamic, it might provide heuristic information about which neighboring nodes are closer and which are further. The authors propose a distributed Mobile-beacon-assisted localization scheme based on RSS and Connectivity observations (MRC) with a specific trajectory in static WSNs.