Node Localization with a Mobile Beacon Based on Ant Colony Algorithm in Wireless Sensor Networks

A novel node localization scheme using a mobile beacon is proposed. In this scheme, the number and positions of the virtual beacons is determined based on equilateral triple optimal coverage, so sufficient localization information can be obtained for each unknown node. And we apply the ant colony algorithm (ACA) to get the optimal path that mobile beacon tour all the virtual beacons. In order to further improve location accuracy, we propose the optimal filtering method to select the optimal set of virtual beacon points for node localization. Simulation results show that our scheme has higher position accuracy, larger location coverage rate and lower energy consumption in comparison to existing ones.