Localization is an important and extensively studied problem in ad-hoc wireless sensor networks. Given the connectivity graph of the sensor nodes, along with additional local information (e.g. distances, angles, orientations etc.), the goal is to reconstruct the global geometry of the network. In this paper, we study the problem of localization with noisy distance and angle information. With no noise at all, the localization problem with both angle (with orientation) and distance information is trivial. However, in the presence of even a small amount of noise, we prove that the localization problem is NP-hard. Localization with accurate distance information and relative angle information is also hard. These hardness results motivate our study of approximation schemes. We relax the non-convex constraints to approximating convex constraints and propose linear programs (LP) for two formulations of the resulting localization problem, which we call the weak deployment and strong deployment problems. These two formulations give upper and lower bounds on the location uncertainty respectively: No sensor is located outside its weak deployment region, and each sensor can be anywhere in its strong deployment region without violating the approximate distance and angle constraints. Though LP-based algorithms are usually solved by centralized methods, we propose distributed, iterative methods, which are provably convergent to the centralized algorithm solutions. We give simulation results for the distributed algorithms, evaluating the convergence rate, dependence on measurement noises, and robustness to link dynamics.

Abstract. While several important problems in the field of sensor networks have already been tackled, there is still a wide range of challenging, open problems that merit further attention. We present five theoretical problems that we believe to be essential to understanding sensor networks. The goal of this work is both to summarize the current state of research and, by calling attention to these fundamental problems, to spark interest in the networking community to attend to these and related problems in sensor networks.

We consider the centralized, anchor-free sensor localization problem. We consider the case where the sensor network reports range information and the case where in addition to the range, we also have angular information about the relative order of each sensor’s neighbors. We experimented with classic and new force-directed techniques. The classic techniques work well for small networks with nodes distributed in simple regions. However, these techniques do not scale well with network size and yield poor results with noisy data. We describe a new force-directed technique, based on a multi-scale dead-reckoning, that scales well for large networks, is resilient under range errors, and can reconstruct complex underlying regions. 1

Abstract—Greedy routing is a novel routing paradigm where messages are always forwarded to the neighbor that is closest to the destination. Our main result is a polynomial-time algorithm that embeds combinatorial unit disk graphs (CUDGs – a CUDG is a UDG without any geometric information) into O(log 2 n)dimensional space, permitting greedy routing with constant stretch. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first greedy embedding with stretch guarantees for this class of networks. Our main technical contribution involves extracting, in polynomial time, a constant number of isometric and balanced tree separators from a given CUDG. We do this by extending the celebrated Lipton-Tarjan separator theorem for planar graphs to CUDGs. Our techniques extend to other classes of graphs; for example, for general graphs, we obtain an O(log n)-stretch greedy embedding into O(log 2 n)-dimensional space. The greedy embeddings constructed by our algorithm can also be viewed as a constant-stretch compact routing scheme in which each node is assigned an O(log 3 n)-bit label. To the best of our knowledge, this result yields the best known stretch-space trade-off for compact routing on CUDGs. Extensive simulations on random wireless networks indicate that the average routing overhead is about 10%; only few routes have a stretch above 1.5. I.

This work approaches the problem of localizing the nodes of a distributed sensor network by leveraging distance constraints such as inter-node separations or ranges between nodes and a globally observed event. Previous work has shown this problem to suffer from false minima, mesh folding, slow convergence, and sensitivity to initial position estimates. Here, we present a localization system that combines a technique known as spectral graph drawing (SGD) for initializing node position estimates and a standard mesh relaxation (MR) algorithm for converging to finer accuracy. We describe our combined localization system in detail and build on previous work by testing these techniques with real 40-kHz ultrasound time-of-flight range data collected from 58 nodes in the Pushpin Computing network, a dense hardware testbed spread over an area of one square meter. In this paper, we discuss convergence characteristics, accuracy, distributability, and the robustness of this localization system. I.

We describe a new algorithm for sensor network localization based on short intersensor distances and fully decentralized computation. The algorithm computes local coordinates of small “patches ” of sensors and glues them together using a distributed global optimization process. Thanks to the global optimization, our method is more robust in the presence of noisy measurements than existing incremental methods. Most notably, and unlike some other global optimization techniques, our method cannot be fooled by local minima that might lead to foldovers in the network layout. The method is anchor-free, so advance knowledge about locations of some sensors is not required. Nonetheless, we provide a way to take advantage of known locations of any number of anchors. An experimental study shows the effectiveness of the new algorithm in noisy environments where the sensors are distributed over regions with a variety of geometric shapes. 1.

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We study the continuous evaluation of spatial join queries and extensions thereof, defined by interesting combinations of sensor readings (events) that co-occur in a spatial neighbor-hood. An example of such a pattern is “a high temperature reading in the vicinity of at least four high-pressure readings”. We devise protocols for ‘in-network ’ evaluation of this class of queries, aiming at the minimization of power consumption. In addition, we develop cost models that suggest the appropriateness of each protocol, based on various factors, includ-ing selectivity of query elements, energy requirements for sensing, and network topology. Finally, we experimentally compare the effectiveness of the proposed solutions on an exper-imental platform that emulates real sensor networks. 1

We present a novel approach to localization of sensors in a network given a subset of noisy inter-sensor distances. The algorithm is based on “stitching” together local structures by solving an optimization problem requiring the structures to fit together in an “As-Rigid-As-Possible ” manner, hence the name ARAP. The local structures consist of reference “patches” and reference triangles, both obtained from inter-sensor distances. We elaborate on the relationship between the ARAP algorithm and other state-of-the-art algorithms, and provide experimental results demonstrating that ARAP is significantly less sensitive to sparse connectivity and measurement noise. We also show how ARAP may be distributed.

Abstract — This paper addresses the topology control problem for large wireless networks that are modelled by an infinite point process on a two-dimensional plane. Topology control is the process of determining the edges in the network by adjusting the transmission radii of the nodes. Topology control algorithms should be based on local decisions, be adaptive to changes, guarantee full connectivity and support efficient routing. We present a family of topology control algorithms that, respectively, achieve some or all of these requirements efficiently. The key idea in our algorithms is a concept that we call monotone percolation. In classical percolation theory, we are interested in the emergence of an infinitely large connected component. In contrast, in monotone percolation we are interested in the existence of a relatively short path that makes monotonic progress between any pair of source and destination nodes. Our key contribution is that we demonstrate how local decisions on the transmission radii can lead to monotone percolation and in turn to efficient topology control algorithms.