摘要：Most node localization algorithms for wireless sensor network (WSN) are only applicable to two-dimensional networks. However, in most cases, nodes are placed in three-dimensional (3D) terrains, such as forests, oceans, etc. In this paper, a range-based 3D localization method is put forward based on time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation of ultra wideband signal using unitary matrix pencil (UMP) algorithm. The proposed method combines UMP algorithm, multilateral localization with 3D Taylor algorithm. UMP algorithm is a matrix pencil (MP) algorithm with utilization of a unitary transform, which is traditionally used to estimate angle-of-arrival (AOA). Here it is extended to estimate TOA to measure the propagation distance between an unknown node and an anchor node, which reduces the computational complexity significantly. By simulation, the accuracy of UMP algorithm is compared with MP algorithm to validate the effectiveness in positioning WSN nodes in a 3D space. This method has superiorities over conventional methods in many aspects, such as higher 3D positioning accuracy, smaller computational amount, suppression over non-Gaussian noise, energy saving, faster executing, etc.
