Connectivity-Based Localization Scheme for Social Internet of Things

Different from the social network which only focuses on the interaction between people, the integration of social networks and the internet of things (IoT) leads to multi-directional interactions of human to human, human to thing, and thing to thing. The social IoT is composed of a large number of heterogeneous devices, which can improve the scalability of resource and service. Meanwhile, the heterogeneous devices have uneven computing power and different location information measurement types (e.g., the distance, angle, and hop count). Therefore, a localization approach with easy-to-obtain measurement data and low requirements on the computing power is needed. In this article, we propose a localization approach for the social IoT by combining the fuzzy rough set theory and the ridge regression extreme learning machine (RRELM). First of all, a location fingerprint database is constructed. Different from the traditional location fingerprint database, the location fingerprint database here stores the minimum hop counts between the reference node (RN) and the anchor node (AN) instead of the received signal strength (RSS). Second, the fuzzy rough set theory is used to compute the significant degree of each AN, and the ANs that contribute little to the positioning result are removed. This approach not only relieves the storage pressure of the location fingerprint database but also reduces the computational complexity of user position estimation. Third, the RRELM is trained by using the samples in the location fingerprint database. Finally, by inputting the newly collected minimum hop counts from the user to each AN into the trained RRELM, the user’s position is estimated. From the extensive experimental results, the proposed approach has high positioning accuracy and low computational complexity, which is suitable for the social IoT.