Autonomous positioning techniques based on Cramér-Rao lower bound analysis

  • Authors:
  • Mats Rydström;Andreu Urruela;Erik G. Ström;Arne Svensson

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden;Department of Signal Theory and Communications, Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden;Department of Signals and Systems, Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden

  • Venue:
  • EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing
  • Year:
  • 2006

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Abstract

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 Cramér-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. Cramér-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 suboptimally, 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.