Distributed cooperative localisation, owing to its low computational burden, is more attractive in wireless networks than the centralised paradigm. However, the distributed algorithms tend to have worse location accuracy among existing works. In this study, the authors focus on the performance dissimilarity between distributed and centralised localisation algorithms, and analyse the Cramér–Rao lower bound. Then, their performance relationship is investigated, and verified by theoretical proof and extensive simulations. Furthermore, it is observed that the position ambiguity of cooperative mobile terminal is the primary cause of performance loss in the distributed algorithm, in contrast with the centralised one. To suppress the impact of position ambiguity, the authors establish an element-wise-weighted total least-squares model and devise the corresponding distributed localisation algorithm. Numerical simulations indicate that the proposed algorithm outperforms traditional methods.
