Efficient Range-Free Localization Algorithm for Randomly Distributed Wireless Sensor Networks

In this paper, we propose a novel range-free localization algorithm able to reduce errors due to mapping the hops into distance units. Using the proposed algorithm, the mean hop size (h) over bar (s) is locally derived at each regular or position-unaware node, thereby avoiding its broadcast by anchors (i.e., a few nodes aware of their exact position) as usually required in current state-of-theart solutions and, hence, resulting in less battery power depletion. The analytical expression of (h) over bar (s) is derived for different node distributions. Furthermore, it is shown that it is possible to locally compute (h) over bar (s) at each regular node with or even without prior knowledge of the node distribution. Simulations results show that the proposed scheme outperforms the most representative range-free localization schemes in terms of accuracy.