Indoor Wireless Localization Using Kalman Filtering in Fingerprinting-Based Location Estimation System

International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications
Vol.8, No.1 (2014), pp.235-246

http://dx.doi.org/10.14257/ijseia.2014.8.1.21
Indoor Wireless Localization Using Kalman Filtering in

Fingerprinting-based Location Estimation System
Geon-Yeong Park, Min-Ho Jeon and Chang-Heon Oh
School of Electrical, Electronics, and Communication Engineering
Korea University of Technology and Education
gypark@koreatech.ac.kr, w1004me@koreatech.ac.kr and choh@koreatech.ac.kr
Abstract
As smart devices such as smart phone and smart TVs become widely distributed, various
studies on location-based services have been conducted. Such location-based services are
useless, however, unless the users location is known. A number of researchers have
examined methods to trace and determine indoor locations for indoor location-based
services. In particular, WALN has been examined in various studies because of its advantage
to use a frequency band available without advanced settings. This study suggests a new
indoor tracing method to reduce time delays upon location fingerprinting for point data
collection, which is a disadvantage of the existing Kalman filtering algorithm and
fingerprinting type location tracing algorithm. This study also compares its performance with
that of existing methods based on the collected data. As a result of the experiment, the fast
collection algorithm is presented as a solution to the problems of existing methods. It is
proven that the fast collection algorithm presented in this study is applicable to a location
tracing system in an actual environment.
Keywords: fingerprinting, location estimation, WLAN, fast collection, NLOS
1. Introduction
In recognition of the usefulness of Location-based Service (LSB), large-sized companies,
plants, and colleges are demanding services for its utilization [1]. Since Global Positioning
System (GPS) itself cannot provide sufficient data to determine the users location when he is
in a building, indoor location tracking to determine the users location in a building,
particularly when utilizing wireless local area network (WLAN), has been actively studied
[2]. This is because WLAN is being used in every place from college campuses to airports,
hotels, large-sized companies, and even private homes. This study introduces a WLAN-based
indoor location estimation system. This determines the users location in reference to received
signal strength indication (RSSI) collected from access points (AP) [3-7]. Fingerprinting is
the most common method used to determine the users location because its method for
location estimation is simple compared to angle of arrival (AOA), time difference of arrival
(TDAO), and time of arrival (TOA). Fingerprinting is used to link location-related
characteristics such as the RSSI received from a number of APs to the location rather than
relying on the accurate estimation of the angle or distance and to infer the location of such
characteristics. In this case, the wireless network interface card (NIC) and existing WLAN
infrastructure could be readily reused with no need for special hardware at a mobile station
(MS).
Fingerprinting consists of the offline step and real-time step. The offline step collects the
data used in determining location by using the fingerprinting method. In this step, the location
ISSN: 1738-9984 IJSEIA

Copyright 2014 SERSC

Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
fingerprint or radio map database is established [8]. Setting up the database involves the
mapping of each location point and location fingerprint data (RSSI). One of the disadvantages
of the offline step in fingerprinting is that it takes long to collect data and the values change
over time. Hence, this problem needs to be solved first of all. In this study, a location
fingerprint consists of vectors of various APs RSSI values at a certain location of
(
). The data extracted in real time to solve the problem above is used as the
location fingerprint data. The real time step of fingerprinting estimates the location based on
the location information of the database collected in the offline step. A mobile node (MN)
acquires location information
. The Hamming signal distance between
the and for each in the database is computed. The information collected in the real
time step and the route of the users movement are used to update location fingerprinting data
in consideration of the surroundings.
Based on the points above, this study suggests a method to collect offline data effectively
in a fingerprinting-based indoor location estimation system. Chapter 2 points out the
problems of the existing methods and explains the fast collection algorithm in the offline step
to solve such problems. Chapter 3 explains the fast collection algorithm in the real-time step.
Chapter 4 evaluates the RSSI collection and transfers software for the location fingerprint
database, experiment environment, and algorithm suggested in this study. Chapter 5 presents
the conclusion.
2. Algorithm of Fast Collection for Offline Step Data

The fingerprinting-based indoor location estimation system estimates indoor location
in reference to the RSSI of WLAN. Hence, it involves less cost for the additional
system compared to other indoor location estimation systems. Since the collected data
in the offline step and period for the establishment of the fingerprinting offline step
may be changed over time, there must be a system to address this problem. This st udy
suggests the fast collection (FC) algorithm to reduce the time of collecting location
fingerprints in the offline step in the indoor location estimation system and to
complement location fingerprints that might be changed over time.
Location fingerprint data collected in a static status may be different at each time of
measurement due to the dense multiple channels of indoor radio waves and radio effects
such as reflection, diffraction, and dispersion. Multipath fading changes the received
signals around the medium values at a certain location. As such, received signals are
presented and they are influenced by the combined effects of large-scale fading and
small-scale fading [9].
Kamol Kaemarungsi has studied RSSI characteristics such as the effect of a users
body, effect of users orientation, distribution of received signal strength, standard
deviation of the RSS, stationary condition of the RSS, and so forth [10]. When it comes
to the RSSI characteristics that he studied, special attention must be paid to their effect
to the users body, the effect of the users orientation, the time dependency of received
signal strength, the interference from multiple APs, and the independence of multiple
RSSs.
As to RSSI characteristics presented by Kamol Kaemarungsi, a location fingerprint
database needs to be established in consideration of the route of the user s movement
and number of surrounding APs to form the fingerprinting type location estimation
system. When a location fingerprint database must be established in the offline step
based on the points above, it will take more time depending on the size of the building.
On the other hand, the collection of location fingerprint data would be quite efficient.
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When the information of a moving object is collected and the database is established
after all possible routes of the users movement are calculated, the time of establishing
the location fingerprint database will be shortened. In addition, using the location
information collected every hour will further shorten the offline step, with the errors in
the real-time step reduced. This theory will be proven in the following section before
the fast collection algorithm is presented.
Figure 1. A Comparison of AP RSSI Depending on the Location

Figure 1 shows the RSSI values of APs collected during the movement. As shown in
this figure, the object moves at similar rates in the same place, and the measured RSSI
values are in a similar scale. The RSSI values of APs collected in a static status,
however, are significantly different.
To reduce the difference in the fingerprint method, it is important to collect as many
vector Rs as possible. Location vector division provides vector R, which forms
in Table 2 of the movement coordinates, with a number for . For such location vector
division, as to
collected initially in Expression 1 and Vector R of
collected
thereafter, all the variables of Vector R included in are subtracted by vector R of
to calculate the absolute value.
(1)
When the value of
calculated in Expression 1 is
, there is no need for APcentric distribution; thus, a new Vector is generated as many as . Afterwards, k,
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
which is the value of

Vector .
is added to the generated
Table 1 shows the data after the location vector division of the
Table 2 in application of Expressions 1 and 2.
Table 1. Location Vector Division Data of
Vector
(location)
(0m) , reference point
(1m)
(2m)
(3m)
(4m)
(5m)
(6m)
(7m)
(8m)
(9m)
(10m)
AP 1
-47
-47.4
-47.8
-48.2
-48.6
-49
-49.4
-49.8
-50.2
-50.6
-51
AP2
-45
-44
-43
-42
-41
-40
-39
-38
-37
-36
-35
(2)
section in
Section
AP3
-33
-33.8
-34.6
-35.4
-36.2
-37
-37.8
-38.6
-39.4
-40.2
-41
AP4
-53
-51.8
-50.6
-49.4
-48.2
-47
-45.8
-44.6
-43.4
-42.2
-41
AP1 and AP3 are of almost a straight line, which indicates that when
, the
value added to the variable
of Vector
k is low. Two interpretations are
possible: first, AP may exist in the range of
- . In this case,
, and this value
gets bigger as AP goes out of the center. Hence, when
, the use of AP-centric
distribution increases the value of , and the added variable increases accordingly.
In the second case, when the AP from which the value of RSSI is collected is far, the
received signals may go through interference. The added variable is
. To
solve this problem, the fast collection algorithm suggested in this study calculates the
vector in the way of location vector division, inserts it, and determines its location in
reference to Hamming distance in the section of
.
Table 2 shows the RSSI data right under AP. This indicates that RSSI values may be
changed depending on the direction even right under AP. As for the AP-centric
distribution of the fast collection algorithm, the difference in location vector division is
complemented by the data above when
. AP-centric distribution collects the data
from four different directions with AP as the center as shown in Figure 3. The direction
is designated to a certain value. Once the direction is designated, the value of AP centric distribution is inserted between
and
, and then the value of
is
generated through location vector division.
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
Figure 2. Location Vector Division Data of
Section
Table 2. RSSI Value of the Movement Route Measured Right Under AP

Direction
Front
Right
Back
RSSI
-35
-29
-41
-23
Figure 3. A Comparison of the RSSI of each AP on Li Depending on the

Measuring Methods
3. Algorithm of Fast Collection for Real-time Step Data

As stated earlier, the environmental change over time also needs to be considered.
Hence, the way to complement it in the real-time step also will be discussed. To
complement the disadvantage of data change over time, the location fingerprint, which
is used in location estimation in the real-time step, is revised by using Expression 3.
(3)
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
in Expression 1 is the variable of Vector R, and

is the variable of Vector R
to which
will be compared. The RSSI value for a certain AP among those that were
collected for 24 hours at one place may change from a minimum of -29dBm to a
maximum of -33dBm in an adjacent area. It may change at every second irregularly.
When Expression 1 is substituted for the changing amount, however, it is converged to
one variable at one time zone as in Figure 1. The distribution traces form a lineal curve
over time. The lineal distribution may be described with the example in Figure 4.
Although the change is irregular from 09:00 to 08:00 on the next day, the variable of
the collected Vector R changes in a lineal form from -31dbm (09:00) to -33dBm (10:00)
when it is observed each hour. When the changing data collected in the offline step is
adjusted according to the timing, the difference of the fingerprinting type estimation
system can be reduced.
Figure 4. RSSI Information of an AP
4. Performance Analysis
4.1. Development of the RSSI Collection and Transfer Software
WLAN-based indoor location estimation methods are economical compared to other
indoor location estimation methods, and a number of studies have been conducted on
this area. WLAN-based indoor location estimation methods cannot be realized unless
RSSI from APs is read. Hence, this research has developed an RSSI collection and
transfer that can be used to measure RSSI.
The computer application is developed by using C# in application of a native Wi-Fi
API provided by Microsoft Developers Network (MSDN). As shown in Figure 5,
information on SSID, link quality, RSSI, frequency, MAC address, and beacon period
at a certain place is collected and transmitted to the server. One outstanding feature is
the beacon message must be transmitted after the program is initialized when AP
information is collected and then recollected. Otherwise, the information collected
earlier remains as it is. Since information on APs may be different depending on the
types of NIC, it is vital to collect various types of NIC and information among common
APs so that it can be applied to various devices.
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
Figure 5. RSSI Reader

4.2. Measurement Setup
A laptop computer equipped with a WLAN card of Ralink technology as well as the
RSSI collection and transfer software developed to collect offline data and estimate
location was used to collect the RSSI information of AP within the 1st engineering
building in the Korea University of Technology and Education. It is a four-story
building in which the 1st to 3rd floors have 18 common APs for each and the 4th floor
has 15. On each floor, there are 16 to 28 personal APs, and the data collected in the
offline step include about 38-50 AP signals at one place.
Figure 6. The 4th Floor of the 1st Engineering Building with the Locations
of Published APs
When all of the AP information is collected to establish a location fingerprint
database, it takes about 10 seconds per step to collect, transmit, and s ave AP
information. Hence, information on APs with the highest strength of RSSI and common
APs installed at the Korea University of Technology and Education is used. This is
because common APs are arranged at the same intervals in a row as shown in Figure 6;
thus, there are duplicated vector data even if only three data sets are used. Further,
when signals from an adjacent corridor enter a room in the building, the RSSI signals
received become very weak. Based on the measuring method suggested by Kamol
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
Kaemarungsi, the signals received by the WLAN card are limited from -93dBm to
0dBm.
4.3. Experimental Methods
As shown in Figure 7, after the table to predict the route of movement in each
direction and the fingerprint location database in the offline are prepared, the users
location information is received and the actual location is compared with the estimated
location of the estimation program in application of the fast collection algorithm. To
evaluate the fast collection algorithm suggested in this study, the time of collecting data
in the existing fingerprinting type offline step and the time of the algorithm suggested
in this study are compared.
Figure 7. Routes within the Building

4.4. Experimental Results
Figure 8 shows the time of collecting AP information when four APs are selected at
one place and the fast collection algorithm of fingerprinting is applied in comparison
with existing fingerprinting methods. In the case of existing fingerprinting methods, the
information is collected at intervals of 1m while in the case of the suggested
fingerprinting method the information is collected at intervals of 10 seconds. For
accurate verification, the object moves 1m per second or 10m per 10 seconds. The
experimental result indicates that the suggested fingerprinting method involves increase
in data collecting time at consistent rates because of continuous movement while
existing fingerprinting methods involve an increase at inconsistent rates due to such
variables as collected data, transmission initialization, distance calculation, etc. As the
time of measuring increases, the difference increases up to 10 times. As the range of
measurement becomes larger, the measuring time increases accordingly.
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
Figure 8. A Comparison of the Data Collecting Time in the Offline Step

Figure 9 shows the range of signal errors at the moment of collecting RSSI from a
moving object in application of the fingerprinting method without AP-centric
distribution as a fast collection algorithm and an existing fingerprinting method. S ince
the existing fingerprinting method does not consider variables of mobility, the range of
signal errors of the fast collection algorithm in consideration of mobility is low. Since
AP-centric distribution is not considered, however, the range of errors is relatively
similar.
Figure 10 shows the range of signal errors at the moment of collecting the RSSI of a
moving object in application of fingerprinting with the AP-centric distribution applied
and an existing fingerprinting method. In comparison with Figure 9, the fingerprinting
method with the AP-centric distribution applied involves a narrower range of errors
than the existing fingerprinting method.
Figure 9. RSSI Errors when the AP-centric Distribution is Applied
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
Figure 10. RSSI Errors when the AP-centric Distribution is Applied

Figure 11 shows the range of errors in comparison of
or RSSI at the measuring
location and Vector R in the location fingerprint database in application of the
suggested fingerprinting method. To verify the excellence of the suggested algorithm,
the values of Vector R collected by means of an existing fingerprinting method are
compared to determine the range of errors, and then the results are illustrated. It turns
out that the performance of the suggested method is better than that of existing
fingerprinting methods in terms of tracing a moving object.
Figure 11. The Difference from the Actual Distance
5. Conclusion
To highlight the necessity of the fast collection algorithm suggested in this study, the
problems of existing fingerprinting methods were addressed, and the data of indoor
environments at various angles were collected and comparatively analyzed to verify the
excellence of the fast collection algorithm. The experimental result indicated that while
the existing indoor location estimation systems in application of the fingerprinting
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method could be used to find an object in a fixed location, they did not prove to be
useful for tracing a moving object. In addition, it has been proven that the data
collecting time could be minimized in the offline step where the fingerprinting method
was applied to trace the location. This was because the performance of the existing
fingerprinting method in collecting data and tracing location was inferior or the
experiment was conducted in a fixed condition. Hence, the fingerprinting method in
application of the fast collection algorithm as suggested in this study to estimate the
location of a moving object by means of actual wireless moving nodes prove d to be
more efficient and accurate for moving objects. Currently, the excellence of the
suggested algorithm was evaluated based on the valid data of a lineal distance. The
study should be developed further in application of this algorithm and in reference to
valid data regarding mobility at various locations.
References
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[6] H. Seo and H. Kim, Journal of information and communication convergence engineering, vol. 10, no. 4,
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[8] M. A. Youssef, A. Agrawala and A. U. hankar, WLAN Location Determination via Clustering and
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[1]
Authors
Geon-Yeong Park, he received a B.S degree in the Department of
electrical engineering from Hnabat Nation university, Deaheon,
Korea, in 2008. He is currently pursuing a M.S. degree in Electrical,
Electronics and Communication Engineering at the Korea University
of Technology and Education, Cheonan, Korea. His research
interests are in the areas of wireless communications, wireless
sensor network and real-time operating system.
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Vol.8, No.1 (2014)
Min-Ho Jeon, he received the B.S degree in the Department of

Game Digital Content from Far East University, Umsung, Korea, in
2009, and an M.S. degree in Electrical, Electronics and
Communication Engineering at the Korea University of Technology
and Education, Cheonan, Korea, in 2011. He is currently pursuing a
Ph.D. degree in Electrical, Electronics and Communication
Engineering at the Korea University of Technology and Education,
Cheonan, Korea. His research interests are in the context -aware,
wireless sensor network, wireless localization, channel coding and
M2M network.
Chang-Heon Oh, he received the B. S. and M.S.E. degrees in

telecommunication and information engineering from Korea
Aerospace Univ. in 1988 and 1990, respectively. He received the
Ph.D. degree in avionics engineering from Korea Aerospace Univ.,
in 1996. From Feb. 1990 to Aug. 1993, he was with Hanjin
Electronics Co. From Oct. 1993 to Feb. 1999, he was with the
CDMA R&D center of Samsung Electronics Co. Since Mar. 1999, he
has been with the School of Electrical, Electronics and Communication
Engineering, Korea University of Technology and Education, where he is
currently a professor. His research interests are in the areas of wireless
communications, mobile communication, and wireless sensor networks
with particular emphasis on wireless localization.
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International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications

Vol.8, No.1 (2014), pp.235-246