A Reverse Localization Scheme for Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks

TLDR

Underwater wireless sensor networks enable monitoring of aquatic environments, but many applications such as target tracking and disaster prevention require accurate location information to be meaningful. This work introduces the Reverse Localization Scheme (RLS), a novel 3D centralized method for mobile UWSNs. RLS is an event‑driven approach in which mobile nodes immediately transmit detected events to surface anchors, eliminating the need to wait for anchor‑provided positions and enabling rapid localization. Simulations show that RLS significantly reduces energy consumption and localization response time while maintaining acceptable accuracy under realistic water‑current mobility, thanks to fewer message exchanges.

Abstract

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) provide new opportunities to observe and predict the behavior of aquatic environments. In some applications like target tracking or disaster prevention, sensed data is meaningless without location information. In this paper, we propose a novel 3D centralized, localization scheme for mobile underwater wireless sensor network, named Reverse Localization Scheme or RLS in short. RLS is an event-driven localization method triggered by detector sensors for launching localization process. RLS is suitable for surveillance applications that require very fast reactions to events and could report the location of the occurrence. In this method, mobile sensor nodes report the event toward the surface anchors as soon as they detect it. They do not require waiting to receive location information from anchors. Simulation results confirm that the proposed scheme improves the energy efficiency and reduces significantly localization response time with a proper level of accuracy in terms of mobility model of water currents. Major contributions of this method lie on reducing the numbers of message exchange for localization, saving the energy and decreasing the average localization response time.