Location Estimation of Nodes in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

The paper presents a location estimation scheme for underwater acoustic sensor networks. During the first phase, the sink node begins the trapezoid formation process by activating the trapezoid formation agent. It stores relevant information in the sink’s knowledge base and in the node’s knowledge base, and also develops the search data structure required for locating the node. During the second phase, the position of the node is determined by utilizing the search data structure. Identification of the location of all nodes by traveling across the trajectory may be performed as well, as an alternative approach. When identifying the location of one node, the estimation is performed based on the search data structure. When determining the position of all nodes, the sink node agent travels along the defined trajectory and transmits beacon messages which contain the real-time location at specific points. The anchor node agent measures the signal strength and localizes itself and begins estimating the locations of other nodes within the trapezoids, using location estimation techniques. Various performance parameters are used to validate the proposed scheme.