Distance measurement correction based on feedback filter for RSSI localisation technique in WSNs

Localisation methods based on the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) are widely used in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). They offer an energy reduced and cost-effective solutions for wireless localisation. Due to radio irregularity, RSSI localisation is vulnerable to multipath, shadowing, interference and environmental effects, which reduces the accuracy of localisation results. In this paper, a new distance measurement correction algorithm is presented, which is based on feedback filter and hardware characteristic. It implements the feedback filter with consideration of historical values of RSSI. This enables to predict possible values of RSSI and thus nodes positions. Hardware characteristics, such as multiplication and summation capabilities are explored to improve the localisation accuracy. Real experiments were carried out on panStamp sensor nodes at two different temperatures. The new proposed RSSI technique shows a reduced localisation error compared to the simple RSSI method.