Received signal strength uncertainty in energy-aware localization in wireless sensor networks

In wireless sensor networks where the nodes are equipped with limited energy sources, energy consumption is a crucial parameter of each part of a node activity. This paper deals with node localization based on received signal strength (RSS). The signal power at receiving node is influenced by several stochastic factors. To eliminate so called RSS uncertainty, several measurements of signal strength must be performed to get the value to be used in distance calculation. Multiple packet transmission means bigger energy consumption during distance estimation. This paper presents the analysis of energy consumption during the signal strength measurement with respect to the accuracy of RSS estimation.