Localization

Murat Demirbas
SUNY Buffalo
Localization

• Localization of a node refers to the problem of identifying its

spatial co-ordinates in some co-ordinate system
 How do nodes discover their geographic positions in 2D or 3D space?

• Model: static wireless sensor networks

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Location Matters

• Sensor Net Applications

 Environment monitoring
 Event tracking
 Smart environment

• Geographic routing protocols

 GeoCast, GPSR, LAR, GAF, GEAR

3
Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

4
Range-based localization

Distances between nodes to nodes/anchors measured wirelessly

• TOA (Time of Arrival )

 GPS

• TDOA (Time Difference of Arrival)

 Cricket

• AOA (Angle of Arrive )

 APS

• RSSI (Receive Signal Strength Indicator)

 RADAR

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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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Time of arrival (TOA)

• Example: GPS

• Uses a satellite
constellation of at least
24 satellites with
atomic clocks

• Satellites broadcast
precise time

• Estimate distance to
satellite using signal
TOA

• Trilateration

B. H. Wellenhoff, H. Lichtenegger and J. Collins, Global Positioning System: Theory and Practice. Fourth
Edition, Springer Verlag, 1997

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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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 Sound based ToF approach
Because the speed of sound is much slower (approximately 331.4m/s)
than radio, it is easier to be applied in sensor network.
Some hurdles are:
• Line of sight path must exist between sender and receiver.
• Mono-direction.
• Short range.

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 Cricket

• Intended for indoors use

where GPS don't work
• It can provide distance
ranging and positioning
precision of between 1 and
3 cm
• Active beacons and passive
listeners

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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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 Angle of arrival (AOA)

• Idea: Use antenna array to

measure direction of
neighbors

• Special landmarks have

compass + GPS, broadcast
location and bearing

• Flood beacons, update

bearing along the way

• Once bearing of three

landmarks is known,
calculate position

"Medusa" mote

Dragos Niculescu and Badri Nath. Ad Hoc Positioning System (APS) Using AoA, IEEE InfoCom 2003

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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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RADAR

• Bahl: MS research

• Offline calibration:
 Tabulate <location, RSSI> to construct radio map

• Real-time location & tracking:

 Extract RSSI from base station beacons
 Find table entry best matching the measurement

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Problems with RSSI

• Sensors have wireless transceivers anyway, so why not just

use the RSSI to estimate distances?

• Problem: Irregular signal propagation characteristics (fading,

interference, multi-path etc.)

Graph from Bahl, Padmadabhan: RADAR: An In-Building

RF-Based User Location and Tracking System
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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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Range-free localization

Range-based localization:
 Required Expensive hardware
 Limited working range ( Dense anchor requirement)

Range-free localization:
 Simple hardware
 Less accuracy

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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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 Range-free: Centroid
• Idea: Do not use any ranging
at all, simply deploy enough
beacons

• Anchors periodically
broadcast their location

Anchors • Localization:
 Listen for beacons

 Average locations of all anchors in range

 Result is location estimate

• Good anchor placement is

crucial!

Nirupama Bulusu, John Heidemann and Deborah Estrin. Density Adaptive Beacon Placement,
Proceedings of the 21st IEEE ICDCS, 2001

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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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Hop-Count Techniques
r
4 DV-HOP
1 2
3 7 [Niculescu & Nath,
1 4 2003]
3
2 5 Amorphous
4 8 [Nagpal et. al,
3
3 6 2003]
4
4
5

Works well with a few, well-located seeds and

regular, static node distribution. Works poorly if
nodes move or are unevenly distributed.
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Outline

• Range-based localization
 GPS
 Cricket
 APS
 RADAR

• Range-free localization
 Centroid
 DV-HOP
 APIT

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 Overview of APIT

• APIT employs a novel area-

based approach. Anchors divide
terrain into triangular regions

• A node’s presence inside or

outside of these triangular
regions allows a node to
narrow the area in which it can
potentially reside.

• The method to do so is called

Approximate Point In Triangle
Test (APIT).

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 Algorithm

• Anchor Beaconing Pseudo Code:

Receive beacons (Xi,Yi)
• Individual APIT Test from N anchors

N
 
• Triangle Aggregation N anchors form 3 triangles.
N
 
• Center of Gravity Estimation For ( each triangle Ti Є 3 ){

InsideSet  Point-In-Triangle-
Test (Ti)

}
Position = COG ( ∩Ti InsideSet);

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Perfect PIT

• If there exists a direction in which M is departure from points

A, B, and C simultaneously, then M is outside of ∆ABC.
Otherwise, M is inside ∆ABC.

• Require approximation for practical use

 Nodes can’t move, how to recognize direction of departure
 Exhaustive test on all directions is impractical

A
M

C
C B
B

Inside Case Outside Case

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 Departure test

Recognize directions of departure

via neighbor exchange RSSI M
N
• Problems with the assumption!!! A
Anchor Receiving nodes

600

Signal Strength (mv)

550
1 Foot
500

450 5 Feet

400 10 Feet

350 15 Feet

300
1 5 9 13 17 21 25 29 33 37
Beacon Sequence Number

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APIT approximation

Test only directions towards neighbors

 Error in individual test exists, may be masked by APIT aggregation.

1
3 M
2

3 M 4
2

B C
B

C
A. Inside Case B. OutSide Case

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APIT: Approximate PIT
• Distances unknown for
most adjacent points
 Use neighbor nodes only

• How to compare distances

to beacons?
 Stronger RSS

• Distributed algorithm:
 Beacon nodes broadcast their location

 Each node builds a table of beacons it

receives and the corresponding RSS
(X,Y) MySS SS1 .... SSn
 Each node broadcasts this table once (1
hop only)
A 20 20 1mv 2mv 6mv

B 45 31 2mv 3mv 7mv

C 23 56 3mv 1mv 7mv

Node M

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 Error Case

Since the number of neighbors is limited, an exhaustive test on every

direction is impossible.
 InToOut Error can happen when M is near the edge of the triangle

 OutToIn Error can happen with irregular placement of neighbors

A

3 2
1

M
M
2

4
4

B C
C B

A. InToOut Error B. OutToIn Error

PIT = IN while APIT = OUT PIT = OUT while APIT = IN

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 APIT Aggregation

0 0 0 0 0 10 1 0 0 0

0 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 0
High Possibility area
0 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0

0 1 2 2 1 1 0 -1 0 0

1 1 2 2 1 1 0 -1 -1 0

0 0 2 2 2 1 0 -1 -1 -1

0 0 1 1 1 0 0 -1 -1 -1

Grid-Based Aggregation

With a density 10 nodes/circle,

Low possibility area
Average 92% A.P.I.T Test is correct
Average 8% A.P.I.T Test is wrong
Localization Simulation example
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 Evaluation
• Radio Model: Continuous Radio Variation Model.
– Degree of Irregularity (DOI ) is defined as maximum radio range
variation per unit degree change in the direction of radio propagation

DOI =0 DOI = 0.05 DOI = 0.2

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 Simulation Setup

• Setup
 1000 by 1000m area
 2000 ~ 4000 nodes ( random or uniform placement )
 10 to 30 anchors ( random or uniform placement )
 Node density: 6 ~ 20 node/ radio range
 Anchor percentage 0.5~2%
 90% confidence intervals are within in 5~10% of the mean

• Metrics
 Localization Estimation Error ( normalized to units of radio
range)
 Communication Overhead in terms of #message

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Error Reduction by Increasing
#Anchors

AH=10~28,ND = 8, ANR = 10, DOI = 0

Placement = Uniform Placement = Random

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Error Reduction by Increasing Node
Density

AH=16, Uniform, AP = 0.6%~2%, ANR = 10

DOI=0.1 DOI=0.2

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Error Under Varying DOI

ND = 8, AH=16, AP = 2%, ANR = 10

Placement = Uniform Placement = Random

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 Communication Overhead
• Centroid and APIT
– Long beacons

• DV-Hop and Amorphous

– Short beacons

• Assume: 1 long beacon = Range2

 short beacons = 100 short
beacons

• APIT > Centroid

– Neighborhood information
exchange

• DV-Hop > Amorphous

– Online HopSize estimation

ANR=10, AH = 16, DOI = 0.1, Uniform

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 Performance Summary
Centroid DV-Hop Amorphous APIT
Accuracy Fair Good Good Good
Node Density >0 >8 >8 >6
Anchor >10 >8 >8 >10
ANR >0 >0 >0 >3
DOI Good Good Fair Good
GPSError Good Good Fair Good
Overhead Smallest Largest Large Small

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