Distance correction range-free localization algorithm for WSNs

Accurate location information is essential for the effective deployment of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) applications. Recently, researchers have developed numerous localization algorithms, with multi-hop methods being particularly attractive due to their cost-effectiveness and robustness, but their accuracy is still unsatisfactory. For better localization accuracy, this paper presented a distance correction range-free localization algorithm (DCRA). Firstly, the proposed algorithm estimates the distance between neighboring nodes based on neighbor connectivity to improve the accuracy of single-hop distance estimation. Secondly, during the multi-hop distance estimation phase, path similarity metrics are employed to ascertain the optimal path correction coefficients, thereby minimizing multi-hop distance estimation errors. Finally, based on the estimated distances, the node localization is converted into an optimization problem, which is then solved using an enhanced particle swarm algorithm to obtain the node coordinates. Simulation results show that the distance estimation accuracy of the DCRA algorithm in different node density scenarios is improved by more than 31 % and 12 % compared to the DV-Hop and DV-RND algorithms, respectively; and in terms of localization accuracy the DCRA algorithm is improved by more than 58 % and 35 % compared to the DV-Hop and DV-RND algorithms, respectively.