Efficient Multisensor Localization for the Internet of Things: Exploring a New Class of Scalable Localization Algorithms

In the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), efficient localization is essential for emerging mass-market services and applications. IoT devices are heterogeneous in signaling, sensing, and mobility, and their resources for computation and communication are typically limited. Therefore, to enable location awareness in large-scale IoT networks, there is a need for efficient, scalable, and distributed multisensor fusion algorithms. This article presents a framework for designing network localization and navigation (NLN) for the IoT. Multisensor localization and operation algorithms developed within NLN can exploit spatiotemporal cooperation, are suitable for arbitrary, large-network sizes, and only rely on an information exchange among neighboring devices. The advantages of NLN are evaluated in a large-scale IoT network with 500 agents. In particular, because of multisensor fusion and cooperation, the presented network localization and operation algorithms can provide attractive localization performance and reduce communication overhead and energy consumption.