2009 Eighth

International
IEEE International
Conference on
Conference
Scalable Computing
on Embedded
andComputing;
Communications;
IEEE International
The Eighth International
Conference on
Conference
Scalable Computing
on Embedded
andComputing
Communications

A Weighted DV-Hop Localization Scheme for Wireless Sensor Networks

Jian Li, Jianmin Zhang

Liu Xiande

Depart. of Computer Science

Henan Institute of Engineering
Zhengzhou 451191, China
{lj2006, zjm1996}@163.com

Depart. of Optoelectronics Engineering

Huazhong University of Sci. and Tech.
Wuhan 430074, China
mlzhou@public.wh.hn.cn
other nodes, called unknown nodes, can estimate their
position by anchor nodes.
Localization in wireless sensor networks is different from
traditional wireless communication technology. There has
been an increasing interest in the localization technique for
WSNs and many localization algorithms for sensor networks
have been developed to provide sensor nodes location
information. Generally, the existing localization algorithms
can further be divided into two categories: ranged-based [3-7]
and range-free [8-14]. Range-based algorithms exploit range
(distance or angle) information for localization. Although the
use of range measurements results in a fine-grained
localization scheme, range-based algorithms require the
sensor to contain additional hardware to make range
measurements. Range-free algorithms do not need absolute
range information. But the accuracy is less than the rangebased but it can still satisfy many applications requirements.
Range-free algorithms do not need any special hardware to
acquire radio signal strengths, angle of arrival of signal, so
the range-free algorithms are more economical, costeffective, and feasible for the large-scale wireless sensor
networks. Typical -range-free algorithms include Centroid
algorithm [8], DV-Hop [9,10], amorphous [11], APIT [12],
MDS-MAP[13,14], etc.
A feasible distributed localization algorithm should be
easily deploy, have good accuracy, promotes scalability, and
be energy efficient. Among many of range-free localization
algorithms, DV-Hop is a neat scheme which worth further
investigation. Its basic idea realize on transforming the
distance to all anchor nodes from hops to meters by using
computer average size of a hop. The advantages of the DVHop scheme are its simplicity and the fact that it does not
depend on measurement error. It is complimented by many
researchers because of its facility, friability and good
coverage quality. However, the DV-Hop technique
introduces errors that propagated to the computation of a
nodes location. Based on the DV-Hop algorithm, many
improvements are given by following researchers [17,18].
To decrease the localization error in DV-Hop algorithm,
in this paper we propose an improved DV-Hop algorithm,
which user weight of anchor to increase the accuracy of
localization.
The remainder of the paper is organized as follows. In the
next section, we introduce the background and related work
for location system. In section , we give the weighted DV-

AbstractLocalization is an important problem in wireless

sensor networks (WSNs), since location information is widely
requested in various location-dependent applications. As one of
the range-free localization algorithm DV-Hop, a well known
localization algorithm, can be simply implement in real WSNs.
To improve the accuracy of localization, this paper proposes an
improved DV-Hop algorithm. The proposed algorithm is
derived from DV-Hop algorithm, and uses weight of anchors to
improve localization accuracy without needing no additional
hardware device. Simulation results show that the improved
DV-Hop algorithm can provide more accurate location
estimation than the DV-Hop algorithm.
Keywords- sensor networks; DV-Hop; node localization

I.

INTRODUCTION

Recent technological advances have enabled the

development of low-cost, low-power and multifunctional
sensor devices. In general, wireless sensor networks intend to
provide information on spatio-temporal characteristics of the
observed physical world. Hence, the determination of the
physical position of sensor nodes is a fundamental issue for
many applications of wireless sensor networks. A number of
applications, such as object tracking, environment
monitoring, inherently rely on location information. Besides,
location information is essential to many location-aware
sensor network communication protocols, such as packet
routing and sensing coverage. All these mentioned above
make localization algorithm become one of the most
important issues in WSNs researches. However, it has been a
challenging task to design a practical algorithm for node
localization given the constraints that are imposed on
sensors, including limited power, low cost.[1,2]
In typical WSNs, it is not infeasible that all the sensor
nodes have the ability to know their location information
initially. Normally, sensor nodes are intended to be low-cost
disposable devices, and currently developed solutions such
as global position system (GPS)[16] are inadequate for the
hardware and power-limited sensors. Traditional localization
techniques are not well suited for these requirements.
Including a GSP receiver on each device is cost and energy
prohibitive for many applications, not sufficiently robust to
jamming for military applications, and limited to outdoor
applications. In general conditions, it is assumed that only a
small portion of sensor nodes are aware of their position
information by GPS or manual configuration in most
localization methods. We call these nodes anchor nodes and
978-0-7695-3825-9/09 $26.00 2009 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/EmbeddedCom-ScalCom.2009.55

269

Hop algorithm in detail. Simulation and analyses are shown

in section . Finally, the conclusions are given in section .
II.

'

Let d i be the estimations distance between the ith

anchor node distances to unknown nodes D. Thus the
difference between the measured and actual distance can be
'
represented as i = d i d i . Several methods are designed
to deal with the ranging noise. The lease squares
minimization is one of them to determine the value (x, y) that

DV-HOP ALGORITHM

In this section, we review the DV-Hop algorithm

proposed by
Niculescu and Nath [9,10]. This scheme
consists three phases. First, it employs a classical distance
vector exchange so that all nodes in the network get
distances, in hops, to the anchor nodes. And then, it estimates
an average size for one hop, which is then deployed as a
correction to the entire network. Finally, unknown nodes
compute their location by multilateration.
In the first phase, all anchor nodes broadcast its
information to its neighbor nodes. The broadcasting
information packages including minimum hop count per
anchor node of all the packages it has received. Each
receiving node maintains the minimum counter value per
anchor of all beacons it receives and ignores those beacons
with higher hop-count values. Beacons are flooded outward
with hop-count values incremented at every intermediate hop.
Such updates and further broadcast will continue until all the
shortest paths are found. Through this mechanism, all nodes
in the network get the shortest distance, in hops, to every
anchor.
In the second phase, once an anchor gets hop-count value
to other anchors, it estimates an average size for one hop,
which is then flooded to the entire network. After receiving
hop-size, all nodes multiply the hop-size by the hop-count
value to derive the physical distance to the anchor. The
average hop-size is then estimated by anchor i as follow:

HopSizei =

j i

minimizes

. This problem can be solved by a

numerical solution to an over-determined linear system [15].

We re-write the distance constrains as follows: AX=B,
where,

y1 yn
x1 xn
x x
y2 yn
n
A = 2 2

M
M

xn 1 xn yn 1 yn
d12 d n2 x12 + xn2 y12 + yn2
2

d 2 d n2 x22 + xn2 y22 + yn2

B=

M
2
2
2
2
2
2
d n 1 d n xn 1 + xn yn 1 + yn
x
X = .
y

Now the least square solution is estimate for P that

2
minimizes || AX B || , then we can calculate

X = ( AT A) 1 AT B

(1)

j i

III.

Where (xi,yi), (xj,yj) are coordinates of anchor i and

anchor j, hij is the hops between anchor i and anchor j.
Once the average hop-size is calculated, each anchor
node broadcasts its hop-size to network using controlled
flooding. Unknown nodes receive hop-size information, and
save the first one. At the same time, they transmit the hopsize to their neighbor nodes. This scheme could assure that
the most nodes receive the hop-size from anchor node which
has the least hops between them. When an unknown node
accepts the information from one anchor node, it computes
the distance between its self and the anchor nodes as the
follow formula:
(2)
d ij = HopSizei hij

(4)

WEIGHTED DV-HOP ALGORITHM

In this section, we will introduce the weighted algorithm

that extends the method in [910]. In DV-Hop, it supposes
that the closest anchor can provide the most accuracy hopsize for the unknown nodes, but in reality this supposes isnt
that case. In real situation some anchors might be placed too
close to each other. As anchor nodes add up the number of
hops in all the shortest paths to other anchor nodes, if some
anchor nodes are too close to each other, the accuracy of
hop-size will be affected. Also from these, when there are
many anchor nodes, the hop-size messages from some
anchor nodes are just wasted. Since each piece of
information brings its own knowledge, it would be better if
we can make full use of it. It is obviously that the hop-size
provided by some anchor nodes has more impact on the
position of unknown nodes than others. In order to reflect the
affect of different anchor in the unknown nodes localization,
in our algorithm each anchor node is given a weight. The
weight of each anchor node is the production of position
weight and distance weight. Here, the hop-size weight
reflects the accuracy of hop-size provided by the anchor
nodes. The distance weight reflects the distance between the
anchor nodes the unknown nodes.

Where hij is the monomial hops between anchor i and

unknown node j.
In the third step, each unknown node computes its
location coordinate. Suppose (x, y) be the unknown node D
location and (xi, yi) the known location of the ith anchor
node receiver. Let di be the ith anchor node distance to
unknown nodes D, then we have

d i = ( x xi ) 2 + ( y yi ) 2

'
i

i =1

( xi x j ) 2 + ( yi y j ) 2

hij

(3)

270

To introduce the weighted DV-Hop algorithm, we also

divide the proposed algorithm into three phases: Minimal
Hop-count Computation, Hop-size and Weighted
Computation, Location Estimation. In the following, we will
present the weighted DV-Hop algorithm in details.

Hop-count Computation
The goal of this phase is that nodes in the network get the
minimal hop-count to every anchor node. As in DV-Hop
algorithm, in this phase anchor nodes flood their location
throughout the network maintaining a running hop-count at
each node along the way. This phase is similar to the DVHop algorithm, so we dont discuss this phase here.

HopSizeij =

( xi x j ) + ( yi y j )
hij

C.

3.

HopSizei =

i =1

'

(6)

(7)

Then the position of unknown nodes is

T

X = ( A'T A' ) 1 A' b '

IV.

Wh j =

1
hij

(12)

SIMULATION RESULTS AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS

In this section, simulation results are presented and

analyzed. We compare the DV-Hop and our proposed
algorithm to evaluated location performance. And we offer
simulation results under the following simulation
circumstance: All the sensor nodes are random placed in a
square area with the fixed size of 100m100m. The radio
range of sensor nodes r is set to 15 meter.
In the simulation the localization error is defined as the
ratio of the difference between the estimated localization and
real localization to the communication range of sensor nodes.
The localization error reflects the accuracy of localization.
The less the localization error is, the more accurate the
localization performance.
Here two graphs of simulation results are presented to
compare the localization performance of the two localization
schemes. Figure 1 show the localization error vs. ratio of

HopSize

'

w12 wn2 ( x12 xn2 + y12 yn2 + d n2 d12 )

M
b' =

wn21wn2 ( xn21 xn2 + yn21 yn2 + d n2 d n21 )

Step 2: After the step 1 for broadcast, all of nodes get

the HopSize and Wd of all anchor nodes. Node i calculates
the HopSize and the hop-size weight Whi of anchor nodes j as
follow:

k =1

+ ( y yi ) 2 d i

x
X =
y
2 w12 wn2 ( x1 xn )
2 w12 wn2 ( y1 yn )

M
M
A' =

2 wn21wn2 ( xn 1 xn ) 2wn21wn2 ( yn 1 yn

Here, if Wsij <0 then Wsij=0, where, r is the

communication range of nodes
4. At last each anchor nodes broadcast the <HopSizei,
Wdij > to all nodes.

HopSize =

then we have A X = b
Where

(5)

Where N is the number of anchor nodes

Then , anchor nodes i computes the hop-size weight
of anchor nodes j as follows:

Wd ij = 1 ( HopLij HopLi ) 2 / r 2

( (x x )

where, wi is the weight of anchor node i.

HopSize
N 1

(11)

Location Estimation
An unknown node can calculate its location when it
has get estimate distance to at least three anchors and
weights of the three anchors. In DV-Hop algorithm, the
position of unknown nodes is calculated by using least
square method. We propose to use weighted lease square
method.
n

ij

2.

jk

k =1

f ( x, y ) = min wi2

Where (xi,yi), (xj,yj) are coordinates of anchor i and

anchor j, hij is the hops between anchor i and anchor j.
j i

Wij = Whij

Wd

Where, Wsjk is anchor node j computes the hop-size

weight of anchor nodes k.

B. Hop-size and Weighted Computation

In this phase, all nodes get the distance to the anchor
nodes and the weight of anchor nodes. To achieve there
goals, the following three steps are needed.
Step 1: In this step, every node estimates an average size
for one hop and the hop-size weight of other anchor nodes.
1.

(10)

k=N

A.

dij = hij HopSize

(8)
(9)

Where N is the number of anchor nodes, HopSizek is

computer by anchor node k hij is the minimal hops
between unknown node i and the anchor node j.
Step 3: At this step, unknown nodes i computes the
distance to the anchor nodes j and weight of the anchor node
j as follow:

271

weighted algorithm can improve location accuracy than the

original DV-Hop algorithm.

anchor nodes when the number of sensor nodes is 200, and

the Figure 2 shows the localization error vs. the number of
nodes when the ratio of anchor nodes is 10%. As can be seen
from the Figure 1 and Figure 2, the proposed weighted DVHop algorithm can provide more accurate location estimation
than the DV-Hop algorithm. As in figure 1, for the same
ratio of anchor nodes, the position error in our weighted DVHop algorithm is smaller than in DV-Hop algorithm. For
example, the proposed algorithm has an average localization
error of about 41% when the anchor nodes ratio is 10%,
whereas the DV-Hop has an average localization error of
about 48.5%. In figure 2, when there are 250 sensor nodes
(including anchor nodes and unknown nodes) the average
localization error is 36% in the proposed weighted DV-Hop
algorithm, while the average error 42% in the original DVHop algorithm.

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]
0.6

Localization Error

0.55

[6]
DV-Hop
Weighted DV-Hop

0.5
0.45

[7]
0.4
0.35

[8]
0.3
0.05

0.1

0.15

0.2

0.25

Ratio of Anchor Nodes

0.3

0.35

0.4

[9]

Figure 1 Localization Error vs. Ratio of Anchor Nodes with 200 sensor
nodes

[10]

0.7

Localization Erro

0.65

[11]

0.6
DV-Hop
Weighted DV-Hop

0.55

[12]

0.5
0.45

[13]

0.4
0.35
0.3
150

175

200

Number of Nodes

225

250

[14]

Figure 2 Localization Error vs. Number of Nodes Given 10 % of Anchor

nodes

V.

[15]

CONCLUSION

In this paper, we present a weighted DV-Hop algorithm

that improves the original DV-Hop algorithm significantly.
The proposed weighted DV-Hop algorithm gives every
anchor a weight which reflects the effects of anchor. In this
algorithm an unknown node computes the hop-size based all
the hop-size values it receives from the anchors, instead of
just taking the first received hop-size value as in original
DV-Hop algorithm. Using this strategy, the position of
unknown nodes is calculated by using weighted least square
method. The simulation results show that the proposed

[16]

[17]

[18]

272

Akyidiz L F, Su W L, Sankarasubramaniam Y, Cayirci E. A survey

on sensor networks. IEEE Communication Magzine , 2002,
40(8):102-114
Patwari N, Ash J N, Kyperountas S, Hero III A O, Moses R L,
Correal N S. Locating the nodes: cooperative localization in wireless
snesor networks. IEEE Signal Processing Magazing, 2005, 22(4):5469
Patwari N, Hero III A O, Perkins M, Correal N S, Dea R J. Releative
location estimation in wireless sensor networks. IEEE Transactions
on Signal Processing, 2003, 51(8): 2137-2148
Niculescu D, Nath B. Ad hoc postioning system (APS) using AOA.
In: Proc. of the 22nd Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer
and Communications Societies. San Franciso, USA: IEEE,
2003.1734-1743
Biwas P, Ye Y. A Digistributed Method for Solving Semidefinite
Programs Arising from Ad Hoc Wireless Sensor Network
Localization. Thechnical Report, Department of Computer Science,
Stanford University, USA, 1993
Shang Y, Ruml W, Zhang Y, Fromherz M. Localization from mere
connectivity. In: Proc. of the 4the ACM International Symposium on
Mobile Ad Hoc Networking and Computing. Annapolis, USA: ACM,
2003.201-211
Shang Y, Rmul W. Improved MDS-based localization. In: Proc. of
the 23red Annual Joint Conference of the IEEE Computer and
Communications Societies. Hong Kong, China: IEEE, 2004.26402651
Bulusu N, Heidemann J, Estrin D. GPS-less low cost outdoor
localization for very small devices. IEEE Personal Communicaitons
Magzine, 2000, 7(5):28-34
Niculescu D , Nath B. Ad-hoc positioning system (APS). Proc. of the
IEEE GLOGECOM, San Antonio, 2001:2926-2931.
Niculescu D, Nath B. DV Based Positioning in Ad hoc Networks.
Journal of Telecommunication Systems, 2003, 22(1-4): 267-280
Nagpal R. Organgizing a Glabal Coordinate System from Local
Information on an Amporphous Computer. Technical Report AI
Memo 1666, MIT Artifical Intelligence Laboratory, Aug. 1999
He T, Huang C D, Blum B M, Stankovic J A, Abdelzaher T. Rangefree Localization Schemes for Large Scale Sensor Netowrks. In: Poc.
of 9the Annual International conference on Mobile Computing and
Networking . San Diego USA: ACM, 2003.81-95
Shang Y, Ruml W, and Zhang Y, et al.. Localization from mere
connectivity. Proc. of the 4th ACM Int. Symposium on Mobile Ad
Hoc Networking and Computing, Annapolis, MD, USA, 2003:201212.
Shang Y and Ruml W. Improved MDS-based localization. Proc. of
the IEEE INFOCOM, Hongkong, 2004:2640-2651.
Sawides A, Han CC, Strivastava MB. Dynamic fine-grained
localization in ad-hoc networks of sensor. Proc. of the 7th annual
international conference on Mobile computing and networking, Rome,
Italy: ACM, 2001: 166-179
B. Hofmann-Wellenhof, H.Licehtenegger, and J. Collin. Global
Positioning System: Theory and Practice , 4th ed. Berlin, Germany:
Srpinger-Verlag, 1997
Wei-Wei Ji and Zhong Liu, An improvement of DV-Hop algorithm in
wireless senso rnetworks, Proc of International Conference on
Wirless
Communication
Networking
and
Mobile
Compution(WiCOM 200), pp.1-4, Sep 2006.
Qiqian Huang and S. Selvakennedy, A range-free localization
algorithm for wireless sensor networks. Proc. of IEEE 63rd,