Distance Estimation Method between Two Nodes in Wireless Sensor Networks

In wireless sensor networks, an estimation method is proposed for distances between nodes within two hops. The method uses only proximity information of nodes without physiccal distance measurements. It drastically improves the performance of localization algorithms based on Proximity information. In addition, it is the first method that estimates distances between nodes exactly in two hops. The distances are estimated from the number of common neighbors under an assumption that the number of common neighbors is proportional to the intersection of two unit disks centered at the two nodes. Simulation analysis shows that the estimation error is roughly from 10 to 20 percent of real distances. Meanwhile, the number of messages required by a distributed algorithm realizing this method is only two times the number of nodes.