Autonomous positioning techniques based on Cramer-Rao lower bound analysis

We consider the problem of autonomously locating a number of asynchronous sensor nodes in a wireless network. A strong focus lies on reducing the processing resources needed to solve the relative positioning problem, an issue of great interest in resource-constrained wireless sensor networks. In the first part of the paper, based on a well-known derivation of the Cramer-Rao lower bound for the asynchronous sensor positioning problem, we are able to construct optimal preprocessing methods for sensor clock-offset cancellation. A cancellation of unknown clock-offsets from the asynchronous positioning problem reduces processing requirements, and, under certain reasonable assumptions, allows for statistically efficient distributed positioning algorithms. Cramer-Rao lower bound theory may also be used for estimating the performance of a positioning algorithm. In the second part of this paper, we exploit this property in developing a distributed algorithm, where the global positioning problem is solved sub-optimally, using a divide-and-conquer approach of low complexity. The performance of this suboptimal algorithm is evaluated through computer simulation, and compared to previously published algorithms. Copyright (C) 2006 Hindawi Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.