A Comparative Study of Range-Free and Range-Based Localization Protocols for Wireless Sensor Network

Wireless Sensor Network is deployed in many fields including military operations, mechanical applications, human services, smart homes, etc. However, deploying WSN encounters many challenges. One of the challenges is localizing the node position, especially mobile targets in critical situations. In this paper, the authors compare two types from range-free localization algorithms and one type from range-based algorithms, namely: Received Signal Strength (RSS), Centroid, and Distance Vector Hop (DV-Hops) protocols, using Cooja simulator. RSS localization algorithms require determining values of the RSS from the anchor nodes around the mobile node, to calculate the distance between the unknown mobile and the first three anchor nodes in the mobile range. The centroid localization requires only three anchors to compute the location of the mobile sensor without the need for distance measuring. Lastly, the DV-Hop algorithm uses routing tables of each anchor in the network topology to compute the Average Distance of Hops. The results show that rang-based algorithms are more accurate than range-free.