Farnaz Taghizadeh Kourayem - Azad University, Kermanshah branch, Kermanshah, Iran.

Position estimation of sensor nodes is one of the vital services, required in many wireless sensor network applications. Between the variety of localization approaches devised so far, acquiring mobile anchor is one of the favorite ones. The approach benefits from various advantages such as, estimation accuracy, flexibility in coverage area and movement path, and using fewer anchor nodes. Mobile anchor based localization approaches are comprised of two modules, the path planning and the localization algorithm. One of the main challenges of the first one is to assign an optimal movement path for the anchor node, while in the second module accuracy is considered as one of the main challenges. Usually, there is a trade off between the trajectory length and the localization accuracy. In this article, we present a new mobile anchor base localization method, called Hexagonal Path planning and Localization Approach (HPLA). HPLA suggests two, regular and extended paths. The first one emphasizes on the trajectory length, while the second one focuses on the accuracy. It also provides an improved localization algorithm for higher estimation accuracy. The mathematical equations prove that it provides a shorter path compared to some similar approaches such as LMAT and Polygon. Moreover, the performed simulations using NS-2 shows that measurement accuracy of the method in a noisy and noise-free environment isimproved. Finally, the energy consumption of the devised localization algorithm is relatively low

Mobile-assisted Localization, Mobile Anchor, Mobile Beacon, Node Localization, Trajectory Planning, Energy Efficiency, HPLA.