Closer to Reality: Simulating Localization Algorithms Considering Defective Observations in Wireless Sensor Networks

The design of energy aware and precise localization algorithms is a challenging task in the realization of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). The achievable precision of algorithms strongly depends on the accuracy of the measured observations (e.g. time of signal flight or received signal strength). In reality, observations are highly defective due to different signal propagation effects occurring in the communication channel. Thus, it is important to consider real characteristics of observations as soon as possible in the simulation process. We present a new simulation tool to test localization algorithms under more realistic conditions regarding measured observations. To show the benefits of this tool, we substitute these observations by practically measured received signal strength functions and simulate among other weighted centroid localization and multilateration.