A system and method for performing distributed sequential node localization in active sensor deployment is presented. An equilateral orthogonal reference frame is defined. The reference frame includes s+1 anchor nodes that is placed in s-dimensional physical space. New nodes are sequentially placed in a natural sequential ordering within the s-dimensional physical space to form a sequentially well-connected network. For each of the new nodes, location estimates are obtained for the new node from at least s+1 of the anchor nodes previously placed in the s-dimensional physical space. A location is determined for the new node based on the location estimates. The new node are placed in the s-dimensional physical space as a new anchor node proximate to at least one of the s+1 previously-placed anchor nodes upon satisfactory location determination.