Limiting the propagation of localization errors in multi-hop wireless networks

This paper concerns a study of the process of localizing the nodes of a multi-hop wireless networks, i.e., of having the node computing their coordinates with respect to a suitable reference system. We consider networks where the nodes perform measurements of distance and angle of arrival from nodes within their transmission radius. We describe a simple localization protocol, termed Range-Based Centroid (RBC), that starting from a single node (the beacon) with given coordinates localizes all the network nodes with reasonable accuracy. We then propose a new localization protocol that achieves greater accuracy by containing the propagation of the localization error as the process progresses away from the beacon. We quantify the improvements of the proposed protocol, termed MEC 2 (for Minimum Enclosing Circle Containment) by simulations. In the considered scenarios, MEC 2 keeps the localization error within 21% of the nodes' transmission radius, with 20-30% improvements over RBC. © 2006 IEEE.