A weighted range‐free localization algorithm for irregular multihop networks

Summary Range‐free localization is a widely concerned technique that supports many essential network applications like coverage and clustering. Most existing localization technologies assume that nodes are uniformly distributed in a regular network with no obstacles and that propagation paths between pairwise nodes are close to straight lines. However, in real‐world scenarios, network topology is usually irregular, resulting in estimated distances that differ significantly from the corresponding physical distances and poor anchor deployment. These will lead to erroneous distance measurement and inaccurate localization results. This paper proposes a new algorithm, called the weighted range‐free localization algorithm (WRL for short), to improve the localization performance in irregular networks. Specifically, we first present a feasible scheme that can fulfill the information exchange and relative distance estimation for each node simultaneously. We then employ an optimal weight function to suppress the effect of cumulative errors and introduce the weighted bounding‐box algorithm to mitigate outlier location estimation induced by probably collinear anchor nodes. Simulation results show that, compared to state‐of‐the‐art methods, WRL improves localization accuracy while incurring lower computation and communication overheads in various irregular network topologies.