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Scalable, Ad Hoc Deployable, RF-Based Localization

Nirupama Bulusu, Vladimir Bychkovskiy, Deborah Estrin, and John Heidemann
USC/Information Sciences Institute

Abstract

Spatial localization or the ability to locate nodes is an important building block for next generation pervasive computing systems, but a formidable challenge, particularly, for very small hardware and energy constrained devices, for noisy, unpredictable environments and for very large ad hoc deployed and networked systems. In this paper, we describe, validate and evaluate in real environments a very simple self localization methodology for RF-based devices based only on RF-connectivity constraints to a set of beacons (known nodes), applicable outdoors. Beacon placement has a significant impact on the localization quality in these systems. To self-configure and adapt the localization in noisy environments with unpredictable radio propagation vagaries, we introduce the novel concept of \emphadaptive beacon placement. We propose several novel and density adaptive algorithms for beacon placement and demonstrate their effectiveness through evaluations. We also outline an approach in which beacons leverage a software controllable variable transmit power capability to further improve localization granularity. These combined features allow a localization system that is scalable and ad hoc deployable, long-lived and robust to noisy environments. The unique aspect of our localization approach is our emphasis on \emphadaptive self-configuration.

Availability

This paper is available in several formats: abstract web page with pointers and cites, PDF, paper copies can be obtained by mail to the authors. Copyright terms for this paper appear below.

Reference

Bulusu02a: Nirupama Bulusu, Vladimir Bychkovskiy, Deborah Estrin, and John Heidemann. Scalable, Ad Hoc Deployable, RF-Based Localization. In Proceedings of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, p. to appear. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Institute for Women and Technology. October, 2002. <http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Bulusu02a.html>.

@inproceedings{Bulusu02a,
	author = "Nirupama Bulusu and Vladimir Bychkovskiy and Deborah Estrin and John Heidemann",
	title = "Scalable, Ad Hoc Deployable, RF-Based Localization",
	booktitle = "Proceedings of the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing",
	year = "2002",
	publisher = "Institute for Women and Technology",
	address = "Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada",
	month = "October",
	pages = "to appear",
	keywords = "subset of journal paper, localization",
	otherurl = "http://www.cs.ucla.edu/~bulusu/papers/Bulusu02a.html",
	url = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Bulusu02a.html",
	pdfurl = "http://www.isi.edu/~johnh/PAPERS/Bulusu02a.pdf",
}

Copyright

This paper is copyright © 2002 by its authors. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that new copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Abstracting with credit is permitted.

To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission of the authors.