IPv6 WSN Geolocation Using the MAC Address

Abstract

Wide-area Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) deployments that consist of a large number of distributed nodes can benefit greatly from self-configuration and constant reporting of the location where data was sensed. Previous work has shown how a WSN node can calculate an initial estimate of its location and a finite set of alternate points that could be its actual location, using the coordinates and nominal transmission radius of its neighbours embedded in their IPv6 addresses. This paper extends that work, presenting a scheme for embedding the coordinates in the Ethernet MAC address to allow use of IPv6 header compression. To save energy, a practical and efficient method for exchanging neighbor address information and supporting dynamic address changes is also proposed to replace listening in promiscuous mode. Necessary modifications to the stack are identified, and a test program is outlined.