Enhanced Path Planning Model for Anchor-Free Distributed Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks (WSNs), localization stands as a major challenge, which is intended to minimize traveling distance of the beacon node. Moreover, the important issue is to improve coverage and accuracy in the location calculation. In this paper, an improved path planning model for the beacon node is presented, which is capable of node localization using distributed approach. The proposed model focuses to improve coverage of the network topology by moving in zig-zag fashion, so that it will enhance the reachability of message in almost every corner of the deployed area. Further, the model focuses on movement of beacon node in such a way that none of the four neighboring positions of beacon node will be collinear. The proposed model is simulated extensively in a self simulator with different scenarios and compared with SCAN. The tested performance of the model is presented along with its analytical model. The simulation result shows that the proposed model outperforms by 1% to 2% than the existing model in terms of percentage of nodes settled and energy consumption.