Efficient Deployment Strategies for Network Localization With Assisting Nodes

• Published in: IEEE transactions on mobile computing Vol. 23; no. 5; pp. 6272 - 6287
• Main Authors: Gomez-Vega, Carlos A., Liu, Zhenyu, Gutierrez, Carlos A., Win, Moe Z., Conti, Andrea
• Format: Magazine Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Alamitos IEEE 01.05.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: 3GPP; 5G mobile communication; Algorithms; assisting nodes; Complexity; Dynamic programming; Localization; Location awareness; Mobile computing; network operation; node deployment; Nodes; Relaxation method (mathematics); Topology; Uncertainty; Wireless networks; Wireless sensor networks
• ISSN: 1536-1233; 1558-0660
• DOI: 10.1109/TMC.2023.3333309

Location awareness is crucial for a variety of emerging applications. The accuracy of localization depends heavily on the spatial topology of the network, especially in complex and infrastructure-limited wireless environments. In these environments, assisting nodes can be deployed to achieve desirable localization performance. This paper presents efficient strategies for deploying assisting nodes to improve the localization accuracy of a target agent. Specifically, it provides a methodology to determine a finite set of candidate positions for the assisting nodes. Based on this methodology, we present a convex relaxation method to select near-optimal positions for the assisting nodes and establish a theoretical limit on the localization accuracy provided by assisting nodes. We also propose an approximate dynamic programming algorithm to deploy assisting nodes with amenable complexity. A case study validates the proposed strategies and shows the benefits of deploying assisting nodes for accurate localization.