Localization for Wireless Sensor Networks

Radha Poovendran
4pm Wed, 20 April, 2005
SC 3405

Abstract

In many applications of wireless sensor networks (WSN), sensors are deployed un-tethered in hostile environments. For location aware WSN applications, it is essential to ensure that sensors can determine their location, even in the presence of malicious adversaries. In this talk we address the problem of enabling sensors of WSN to determine their location in an un-trusted environment. Since localization schemes based on distance estimation are expensive for the resource-constrained sensors, we propose a range-independent localization algorithm called SeRLoc. SeRLoc is distributed algorithm and does not require any communication among sensors. In addition, we show that SeRLoc is robust against severe WSN attacks, such as the wormhole attack, the Sybil attack and compromised sensors. We present a threat analysis and comparison of the performance of SeRLoc with state-of-the-art range-independent localization schemes. We also present a high-resolution extension to SeRLoc provide a number of methods for robust estimation of location. We will also discuss some of the open

Speaker bio

Radha Poovendran has been an assistant professor at the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Washington at Seattle since September 2000. He received his PhD. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1999. His research interests are in the areas of applied cryptography for multiuser environment, wireless networking, and applications of Information Theory to security. He is a recipient of a Rising Star from the National Security Agency (1999), Faculty Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation (2001), Young Investigator Award from the Army Research Office (2002), and Young Investigator Award from the Office of Naval Research (2004), for his research contributions in the areas of wired and wireless multiuser security. He is also a recipient of an Outstanding Teaching Award (2002), as well as an Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award (2002) from the Department of Electrical Engineering of the University of Washington.