Smart Environmental Architecture for Node Localization in a Wireless Sensor Network

As far as we know, there is not a Node Localization Algorithm (NLA) that presents the same accuracy for all possible scenarios. We believe that a NLA should be able to "interpret" the dynamic information of the environment. In this sense, simple NLAs are rather focused and might perform well for specific scenarios and applications. Therefore, information fusion and context awareness seems to be an appropriate approach to address this issue. We propose the Smart Environmental Architecture for Node Localization (SEA-NL), which is composed by two main elements: (i) the Smart Beacon Nodes (SBNs) and (ii) the Logical Position of Nodes (LPN). In (i) the obstruction level indicator is estimated and can improve the estimation of distances among nodes. In (ii) environment information and a one to one relation between a node and an object are used and can also improve location estimation. Via simulation, our architecture was tested indoors and outdoors considering three localization algorithms: the Weighed Centroid Localization (WCL), the Centroid Localization, and the Triangular Centroid Localization. Finally, we present an accuracy comparison among NLAs used in isolated way, and by using the SBNs, the LPN, and the SEA-NL, where our architecture improves WCL up to ~30.88%.