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A hop-count based positioning algorithm for wireless ad-hoc networks

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Abstract

We propose a range-free localization algorithm for a wireless ad-hoc network utilizing the hop-count metric’s ability to indicate proximity to anchors (i.e., nodes with known positions). In traditional sense, hop-count generally means the number of intermediate routers a datagram has to go through between its source and the destination node. We analytically show that hop-count could be used to indicate proximity relative to an anchor node. Our proposed algorithm is computationally feasible for resource constrained wireless ad-hoc nodes, and gives reasonable accuracy. We perform both real experiments and simulations to evaluate the algorithm’s performance. Experimental results show that our algorithm outperforms similar proximity based algorithms utilizing received signal strength and expected transmission count. We also analyze the impact of various parameters like the number of anchor nodes, placements of anchor nodes and varying transmission powers of the nodes on the hop-count based localization algorithm’s performance through simulation.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by Intelligent Transportation System Cluster of the National Science and Technology Development Agency (NSTDA), Thailand and the THNIC Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. intERLab, Asian Institute of Technology, Pathumthani, Thailand

    Sarita Gurung & Kanchana Kanchanasut

  2. Department of Computer Science, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

    A. K. M. Mahtab Hossain

Authors
  1. Sarita Gurung
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  2. A. K. M. Mahtab Hossain
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  3. Kanchana Kanchanasut
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to A. K. M. Mahtab Hossain.

Additional information

This work was done while A. K. M. Mahtab Hossain was working at intERLab, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.

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Gurung, S., Hossain, A.K.M.M. & Kanchanasut, K. A hop-count based positioning algorithm for wireless ad-hoc networks. Wireless Netw 20, 1431–1444 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-013-0685-7

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