High Resolution Robust GPS-free Localization for Wireless Sensor Networks and its Applications

Abstract

In this thesis we investigate the problem of robustness and scalability w.r.t. estimating the position of randomly deployed motes/nodes of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) without the help of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices. We propose a few applications of range independent localization algorithms that allow the sensors to actively determine their location with high resolution without increasing the complexity of the hardware or any additional device setup. In our first application we try to present a localized and centralized cooperative spectrum sensing using RF sensor networks. This scheme collaboratively sense the spectrum and localize the whole network efficiently and with less difficulty. In second application we try to focus on how efficiently we can localize the nodes, to detect underwater threats, without the use of beacons. In third application we try to focus on 3-Dimensional localization for LTE systems. Our performance evaluation shows that these schemes lead to a significant improvement in localization accuracy compared to the state-of-art range independent localization schemes, without requiring GPS support.

Date of Award	Dec 12 2011
Original language	English (US)
Awarding Institution	Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Sciences and Engineering
Supervisor	Mohamed-Slim Alouini (Supervisor)