Localization in harsh propagation environments

This paper presents an investigation into the reliability of localization in wireless networks that operate in harsh radio propagation conditions. Received signal strength (RSS) localization techniques are examined due to their ability to reduce implementation costs. The localization systems studied in environments subject to both Rayleigh fading and log-normal shadowing. The maximum likelihood estimator for a Suzuki distribution has been derived for use in a localization algorithm. The accuracy of RSS techniques is then investigated in two-dimensional deployment scenarios and the effects of a variety of propagation environments on localization accuracy are quantified. In response, system deployment techniques to compensate for harsh propagation environments are examined. It is shown that hexagonal reference node arrangements provide location estimation accuracy improvements over square configurations. Results also demonstrate that the harshest propagation environments as far as localization is concerned are those with small path loss exponent and high shadowing standard deviation.