A GPS-free Passive Acoustic Localization Scheme for Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Seaweb is an acoustic communication technology that enables communication between sensor nodes. Seaweb interconnects the underwater nodes through digital signal processing (DSP)-based modem by using acoustic links between the neighbouring sensors. In this paper, we design and investigate a global positioning system (GPS)-free passive localization protocol using seaweb technology. This protocol uses the range data and planar trigonometry to estimate the positions of the discovered nodes. We take into consideration the small displacement of sensor nodes due to watch circles and placement of sensor nodes on non-uniform underwater surface, for precise localization. Once the nodes are localized, we divide the whole network field into circular levels that minimizes the traffic complexity and thereby increases the lifetime of the sensor network field. We then form the mesh network inside each of the circular levels that increases the reliability. The algorithm is designed in such a way that it overcomes the ambiguous nodes errata and reflected paths and makes the algorithm more robust. The synthetic network geometries are so designed which can evaluate the algorithm in the presence of perfect or imperfect ranges or in case of incomplete data. A comparative study is made with the existing algorithms which proves our newly proposed algorithm to be more effective.