Performance Evaluation of a Wireless Sensor Network Based Tracking System

In this paper, we present a comprehensive analysis of the performance of a wireless sensor network based tar-get tracking system using the Particle Filter. In particular, we evaluate the effect ofvarious network design parameters such as the number ofnodes, number ofgenerated particles, and sampling interval on the tracking accuracy and compu-tation time of the tracking system. Based on our analysis, we also present recommendations on suitable values for the relevant network design parameters, which provide a rea-sonable tradeoff between accuracy and computational ex-pense for this problem. In addition, we also analyse the theoretical Cramer-Rao Bound as the benchmark for the best possible tracking performance. We demonstrate that the results from our simulations closely match the theoreti-cal bounds. We also present initial results from experiments compris-ing of a 25 node wireless sensor network. Initial experi-mental results are promising and show that the PF based estimation is suitable for detection and tracking using inex-pensive wireless sensor network devices.