Sensor Localization via Diversely Polarized Antennas

Abstract

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are currently employed in a vast number of different applications ranging from home automation and health care to military systems. Although their application may vary greatly, WSNs share a common set of characteristics such as a limited energy supply and simple hardware. A common issue related with the application of WSNs is sensor localization, for some types of applications it is important that the sensors know the relative or absolute position of other sensors in the network, such as surveillance of monitoring networks. If sensors are randomly placed they may resort a wide range of methods such as Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) or received signal strength indicators (RSSI). In this work we present an alternative to relative sensor localization by employed a crossed dipole antenna in the reception and a known polarization in the transmission. The accuracy of the proposed methods is measured trough numerical simulations and results are presented.