%0 Journal Article %A Shun-Kai Yang and Kuo-Feng Ssu %D 2009 %J International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering %B World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology %I Open Science Index 32, 2009 %T An Energy Efficient Protocol for Target Localization in Wireless Sensor Networks %U https://publications.waset.org/pdf/644 %V 32 %X Target tracking and localization are important applications in wireless sensor networks. In these applications, sensor nodes collectively monitor and track the movement of a target. They have limited energy supplied by batteries, so energy efficiency is essential for sensor networks. Most existing target tracking protocols need to wake up sensors periodically to perform tracking. Some unnecessary energy waste is thus introduced. In this paper, an energy efficient protocol for target localization is proposed. In order to preserve energy, the protocol fixes the number of sensors for target tracking, but it retains the quality of target localization in an acceptable level. By selecting a set of sensors for target localization, the other sensors can sleep rather than periodically wake up to track the target. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol saves a significant amount of energy and also prolongs the network lifetime. %P 2030 - 2039