Error Distribution of Range Measurements in Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs)

In this paper the main objective is to scrutinize this assumption for different environments. Experiments are performed in both outdoor and indoor environments with Line-of-Sight (LOS) and Non-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) conditions using IEEE 802.15.4 compliant devices. These devices consist of a low-cost 2.45 GHz chipset and use Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurement technique for range estimation. Our results and analysis are based on four different statistical Goodness-of-Fit (GOF) tests i.e., a graphical technique, Linear correlation coefficient, AndersonDarling, and Chisquared for investigating the Gaussianity of range measurements. In several sensor networks mainly for environmental applications such as water quality monitoring, precision agriculture, and indoor air quality monitoring, the on hand sensing data may be rendered useless by a lack of accurate sensor location estimation. The availability of accurate sensor location estimates can help reduce configuration requirements and device cost. Further, accurate sensor location estimates enable applications such as inventory management ,intrusion detection, detecting and monitoring car thefts, and vehicle tracking and detection .The assumption of Gaussianity is prevalent and fundamental to many statistical theories and engineering applications. In recent years a lot of research has been done in the field of localization in WSNs and all the existing localization methods are based on the Gaussianity assumption such that either the range estimates r or the noise/error distorting the range estimates are assumed to be Gaussian distributed. GOODNESS OF FIT (GOF) TESTSA. Graphical Technique B. Linear Correlation Coefficient () C. Anderson-Darling Test (A2) D. Chi-Squared Test (_2) The experiments have been performed in an indoor and an outdoor environment with both LOS and NLOS conditions. For each condition three different sets of experiments have been performed and for each set of experiments the transmitter and receiver nodes are mounted on a tripod at a specific height. The three different heights used are 0.5 m, 1.0 m and 1.5 m. At each

height five experiments were performed with different ranges of 10 m, 20 m, 30 m, 40 m and 50 m. For each range 500 iterations are executed giving 500 range estimates.

GRAPHICAL AND NUMERICAL RESULTSIt is observable from the results that each method is powerful in scrutinizing the hypothesis of Gaussianity however the graphical and techniques are less consistent but simpler to use in comparison with the A2 and _2 tests. The end results acquired from A2 and _2 appears more valid and authentic as they can be compared with standard critical values for these tests whereas in the case of graphical technique the outcomes are to be visually examined and for linear correlation coefficient, , technique some generalization has to be made for validating the hypothesis. The results encourage further investigation into the topic. The central limit theorem (CLT) states that the sum of large numbers of independent, statistically more or less identical, random variables has an approximately Gaussian distribution, so in future the effect of the number of range estimates n on Gaussianity will be examined and the outdoor NLOS condition will be studied in more detail. It will also be investigated why 75% of the result negates the hypothesis of Gaussianity. If Gaussian distribution is not the perfect model for the error distribution in range estimates, then which statistical model can best describe the observational error distribution in ranging.

Submitted by Priti Singh Tanwar (1125938)