Multi-Source Information Fusion-Based Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, accurate node localization is essential for ensuring the precision of data collection. The DV-Hop algorithm, a popular range-free localization method, estimates distances between nodes by multiplying hop counts with average hop distances obtained through distance vector routing. However, this algorithm often experiences localization errors in randomly distributed network environments due to considerable inaccuracies in average hop distance calculations and the approximation of actual paths by straight-line paths. This paper introduces an enhanced DV-Hop localization algorithm, which constructs a mathematical model to optimize the mean square error of the average hop distance for any anchor node. This optimization corrects the average hop distance across the network, bringing it closer to the actual value, thus reducing errors and enhancing accuracy. Simulation results indicate that with 150 nodes, a 30% beacon node ratio and a 100-m communication range, the localization error of the improved FuncDV-Hop model decreased from 0.3916 to 0.1705, and the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) decreased from 24.78m to 14.39m, thereby improving localization accuracy by 56.46%.