IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee-Based Time-of-Arrival Estimation for Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

Precise time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation is one of the most important techniques in RF-based positioning systems that use wireless sensor networks (WSNs). Because the accuracy of TOA estimation is proportional to the RF signal bandwidth, using broad bandwidth is the most fundamental approach for achieving higher accuracy. Hence, ultra-wide-band (UWB) systems with a bandwidth of 500 MHz are commonly used. However, wireless systems with broad bandwidth suffer from the disadvantages of high complexity and high power consumption. Therefore, it is difficult to employ such systems in various WSN applications. In this paper, we present a precise time-of-arrival (TOA) estimation algorithm using an IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee system with a narrow bandwidth of 2 MHz. In order to overcome the lack of bandwidth, the proposed algorithm estimates the fractional TOA within the sampling interval. Simulation results show that the proposed TOA estimation algorithm provides an accuracy of 0.5 m at a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 8 dB and achieves an SNR gain of 5 dB as compared with the existing algorithm. In addition, experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm provides accurate TOA estimation in a real indoor environment.

Opportunistic Time-of-Arrival localization in fully asynchronous wireless networks

“…In principle it would be possible to achieve better resolution, either by large oversampling (see discussion in [31]) or by leveraging more sophisticated signal processing techniques to achieve sub-sample resolution (e.g. [32]). However, such capabilities are not implemented in standard COTS transceivers that are designed purely for the communication purpose, not localization.…”

A performance investigation on IoT enabled intra-vehicular wireless sensor networks

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An improved incremental least-mean-squares algorithm for distributed estimation over wireless sensor networks

“…The known measurement-based localization techniques include time-based methods (e.g. time of arrival (TOA) 40 and time difference of arrival (TDOA) 41 ), received signal strength indicator (RSSI), 42 and angle of arrival (AOA). 43 For range-free schemes, the acquisition of the position information of the target depends on the information about neighbor connectivity or hop-count in multi-hop WSNs instead of the measurements.…”