A Single Chord Localization Algorithm for Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper presents a novel range-free single chord localization algorithm with low energy consumption and high accuracy for wireless sensor networks. A mobile anchor node and a mobile reference node are employed to periodically broadcast beacon messages and reference messages, respectively. Each sensor node is equipped with a received signal strength indicator for comparing the signal strength. By using the edge function and the result of comparing signal strength, each sensor node only needs one chord on the communication circle for localization. Compared with previous approaches that require multiple chords, less beacon messages are required by the sensor nodes. In the proposed algorithm, the localization error mainly depends on the move distance interval. However, for the other approaches, large localization errors can be observed according to the angle between chords which may descend the localization accuracy dramatically. Analysis results indicate that the proposed algorithm is superior to other approaches in energy consumption and localization accuracy.