An experimental evaluation of localization methods used in wireless sensor networks

Abstract

The problem of localization in wireless sensor networks has received considerable attention from researchers over the past decades. Several methods and algorithms have been proposed to solve this problem. The effectiveness of these algorithms depends on the accuracy of the estimated positions and the information required to calculate the coordinates. In this paper, we propose to evaluate four of the most commonly used localization methods in sensor networks. Our study considers a mathematical description of the studied methods in order to evaluate their complexity, and then a practical implementation on the simulation tool Cooja. We evaluate the performance of the studied methods as a function of the number of deployed sensor nodes and their degree of mobility in terms of several performance metrics. The objective is to reveal the most suitable localization method for a particular case of deployment. Improvement proposals are also provided to improve the most relevant localization method for the investigated study.