Effect of channel interference on indoor wireless local area network positioning

Abstract

Localization systems for indoor areas have recently been suggested that make use of existing wireless local area network (WLAN) infrastructure and location fingerprinting approach. However, most existing research work ignores channel interference between wireless infrastructures and this could affect accurate and precise positioning. A better understanding of the properties of channel interference could assist in improving the positioning accuracy while saving significant amounts of resources in the location-aware infrastructure. This paper investigates to what extent the positioning accuracy is affected by channel interference between access points. Two sets of experiments compare how the positioning accuracy is affected in three different channel assignment schemes: ad-hoc, sequential, and orthogonal data is analyzed to understand what features of channel interference affect positioning accuracy. The results show that choosing an appropriate channel assignment scheme could make localization 10% more accurate and reduce the number of access points that are required by 15%. The experimental analysis also indicates that the channel interference usually obeys a right-skewed distribution and positioning accuracy is heavily dependent on channel interference between access points (APs).

Interference Effect on Localization Solutions: Signal Feature Perspective

“…In this work we have discussed how interference affects the packet-based RSSI values of IEEE 802.11 and IEEE 802.15. 4 and ToF measured by IEEE 802.15.4 based system. It has been confirmed both theoretically and experimentally that the interference significantly changes the signal features.…”

“…The impact of beacon packet losses on the RSSI-based fingerprinting algorithms is discussed in [3]. In [4], the authors show how the interference between Access Points (APs) degrades the performance of localization solutions. The authors in [5] performed a set of measurements using telosB with CC2420 radio where, according to their observations, the interference effect on RSSI values is additive.…”

An indoor localization system considering channel interference and the reliability of the RSSI measurement to enhance location accuracy

“…This paper shows that it is very difficult to predict the quality and stability of the different channels in sensor networks, as the environment conditions greatly and influence the network performance. Researchers in [4] investigate to what extent the positioning accuracy is affected by channel interference between access points. This paper analyzes how the positioning accuracy is affected in three different channel assignment schemes (ad-hoc, sequential, and orthogonal data).…”