Distance-based sensor node localization by using ultrasound, RSSI and ultra-wideband - A comparision between the techniques

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become one of the most important topics in wireless communication during the last decade. In a wireless sensor system, sensors are spread over a region to build a sensor network and the sensors in a region co-operate to each other to sense, process, filter and routing.

Sensor Positioning is a fundamental and crucial issue for sensor network operation and management. WSNs have so many applications in different areas such as health-care, monitoring and control, rescuing and military; they all depend on nodes being able to accurately determine their locations.

This master’s thesis is focused on distance-based sensor node localization techniques; Received signal strength indicator, ultrasound and ultra-wideband. Characteristics and factors which affect these distance estimation techniques are analyzed theoretically and through simulation the quality of these techniques are compared in different scenarios.

MDS, a centralized algorithm is used for solving the coordinates. It is a set of data analysis techniques that display the structure of distance-like data as a geometrical picture. Centralized and distributed implementations of MDS are also discussed.

All simulations and computations in this thesis are done in Matlab. Virtual WSN is simulated on Sensorviz. Sensorviz is a simulation and visualization tool written by Andreas Savvides.