Hybrid Localization Approach for Underwater Sensor Networks

Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) are widely used to collect data in the marine environment. Location and time are essential aspects when sensors collect data, particularly in the case of location-aware data. Many studies on terrestrial sensor networks consider sensor locations as the locations where data is collected and focus on sensor positioning when sensors are fixed. However, underwater sensors are mobile networks and the sensor locations change continuously. Localization schemes designed for static sensor networks need to run periodically to update locations and consume considerable sensor power and increase the communication overhead; hence, they cannot be applied to UWSNs. This paper presents a hybrid localization approach with data-location correction, called Data Localization Correction Approach (DLCA), which positions data without additional communication overhead and power consumption on sensors. Without loss of generality, we simulate the ocean environment based on a kinematic model and meandering current mobility model and conduct extensive simulations. Our results show that DLCA can significantly reduce communication costs, while maintaining relatively high localization accuracy.