A novel algorithm for source location by utilizing the time-difference-of-arrival (TDOA) of a signal received at spatially separated sensors is proposed. The algorithm is based on the constrained total least-squares (CTLS) technique and gives an explicit solution. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has high location accuracy and its performance is close to the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB).

Location of a source is of considerable interest in wireless sensor networks, and it can be estimated from passive measurements of the arrival times. A novel algorithm for source location by utilizing the time of arrival (TOA) measurements of a signal received at spatially separated sensors is proposed. The algorithm is based on total least-squares (TLS) method, which is a generalized least-squares method to solve an overdetermined set of equations whose coefficients are noisy, and gives an explicit solution. Comparisons of performance with standard least-squares method are made, and Monte Carlo simulations are performed. Simulation results indicate that the proposed TLS algorithm gives better results than LS algorithm.