Landscape-3D: A robust localization scheme for sensor networks over complex 3D terrains

Despite the fact that sensor networks could often be deployed over three-dimensional (3D) terrains, most approaches on sensor localizations are designed and evaluated considering only two-dimensional (2D) applications. On the other hand, being the foundation of the most previous localization solutions, reliable and sufficient neighborhood-measurements are often hard to achieve for sensor nodes deployed in complex 3D terrains, which makes it difficult to extend those solutions into 3D applications. In the paper, we introduce a robust 3D localization solution called Landscape-3D, in which we treat the localization problem from a novel perspective by taking it as a functional dual of target tracking. Besides several nice features, such as high scalability, high accuracy, zero sensor-to-sensor communication overhead, low computation overhead, etc., one of the most important advantages of Landscape-3D is that it works totally independent of node densities and network topologies, which makes it robust to complex 3D environments. Our simulation model involves various 3D scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate that Landscape-3D is a robust localization approach for sensor networks deployed in complex 3D terrains.