Semidefinite programming for ad hoc wireless sensor network localization

We describe an SDP relaxation based method for the position estimation problem in wireless sensor networks. The optimization problem is set up so as to minimize the error in sensor positions to fit distance measures. Observable gauges are developed to check the quality of the point estimation of sensors or to detect erroneous sensors. The performance of this technique is highly satisfactory compared to other techniques. Very few anchor nodes are required to accurately estimate the position of all the unknown nodes in a network. Also the estimation errors are minimal even when the anchor nodes are not suitably placed within the network or the distance measurements are noisy.