RSS-based distance measurement in Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks: An application of the Lambert W function

Fast and accurate distance measurement is crucial for target tracking and node localization in Wireless Sensor Networks. For short-range Underwater Acoustic Sensor Networks (UASNs), received signal strength (RSS) can give distance between acoustic devices. An extensive study on the application of the Lambert W function over RSS for distance estimation in short-range UASNs shows that it can be done accurately in as few as 4 iterations. The method is mathematically derived in this paper and the accuracy verified with Matlab simulation.