Position Location using Radio Fingerprints in Wireless Networks

Prashant Krishnamurthy Graduate Program in Telecom & Networking

Agenda

Introduction Radio Fingerprints What Industry is Doing Research Conclusions

Introduction

Why Position Location?

Metrics

Location based services

Driving directions, concierge services, etc.

E-911 mandate

100m at least 67% of the time and within 300m at least 95% of the time

Accuracy (e.g., 100m) Precision (e.g., 67%) Delay Coverage Capacity

Algorithms for Position Location

Association to a Point of Access (POA) Time or Time Difference of Arrival (TOA/TDOA)

Other distance or range based schemes

Angle or Direction of Arrival (AOA/DOA) Radio Fingerprinting

Algorithms Again
Tx-A . Rx Rx Tx-B . Tx-1 Tx-2 (a) Cell-ID based position location (c) TDOA based position location Tx-3

Tx-1

Tx-2

(b) TOA based position location

Rx

Rx

(d) AOA based position location . Tx-2

Tx-3

. Tx-1

Remarks (1)

Cell-ID (POA)

43% of the time, a MS may associate itself with a base station that is NOT closest to it Poor accuracy - 800m in NY area Several standards in cellular networks Provide reasonable accuracy

TOA/TDOA approaches

Remarks (2)

AOA/DOA Techniques

Many cells use omnidirectional antennas 120o antennas have large beamwidths to accurately estimate directions Not part of any standard

Radio Fingerprinting: Idea

Fingerprint at grid location r2 RSS from AP 2 Decision Boundary

AP2

AP1

Estimated Location RSS from AP 1 r1

Access Point

Grid Point

Fingerprint

Sample RSS vector

Idea for WiFi (with some measurements) was first published by researchers from Microsoft

What makes up a Fingerprint?

Any unique characteristic that differentiates location

Common to use RSS from multiple base stations or access points Others: Signal-to-Interference, time delays, cellIDs seen, etc.

Match observed sample with entries in database to estimate location Exact matches are unlikely - errors

Why Fingerprinting?

Multipath propagation

Impacts error with TOA/TDOA and AOA techniques Beneficial in the case of fingerprinting No new hardware, spectrum, or sensing technologies outside of what already exists

Software only approach

Improved time to fix Lower power consumption (compared to GPS)

Why Not Fingerprinting?

Database of fingerprints is laborious to create Unclear how much information needs to be stored

Too much or too little? Censored data New cells, change in environment, etc. Self-healing?

Database may have to be regularly updated

Fingerprinting in CellularOnly Networks

Comparison with Assisted-GPS in mix of indoor and outdoor test points Blind trial in New York City and Toronto by operators
Accuracy < 50m < 100m < 150m Precision 74%, 69% 91%, 90% 99%, 96% 100%

Polaris Wireless judged < 200, 300m the best

Source: M. J. Feuerstein, "Urban and Indoor Location using Pattern Matching of Wireless Network Measurements," Invited Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, June 2008.

Hybrid Positioning in Cellular-Only Networks

Combining techniques improves accuracy and precision WLS = Wireless Location Signature

Source: M. J. Feuerstein, "Urban and Indoor Location using Pattern Matching of Wireless Network Measurements," Invited Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, June 2008.

Using WiFi with Cellular and GPS

Approach made popular by Skyhook and iPhone

XPS - Hybrid Positioning WPS - WiFi Positioning

Without Skyhook With Skyhook

Available for Windows Mobile devices as well

Source: Skyhook Wireless

Combining WiFi with GPS and Cellular

Why?

Over 50 million WiFi APs deployed

26 million in the US

Downtown area - average of 10-18 APs detected in any location

Ideal to use SSIDs & RSS as the radio fingerprints Use only 2 GPS satellites with the radio fingerprints

Source: F. Alizadeh, Opportunistic vs Hybrid positioning, Invited Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, June 2008.

Performance of Skyhooks WPS

HTC Tilt

Manhattan & San Francisco 60 outdoor and 40 indoor points

Indoor 50% Prec 95% Prec Outdoor

Better accuracy than GPS Better coverage than GPS

Source: F. Alizadeh, Opportunistic vs Hybrid positioning, Invited Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, June 2008.

WPS/XPS Performance
Power Consumption (lower estimate)

Technique 50% Prec. 95% Prec.

WPS 68 m 117 m

XPS 44 m 97 m

One Shot 50% Tracking, 50% one-shot

Recent work at Skyhook Prototype results

Source: F. Alizadeh, Opportunistic vs Hybrid positioning, Invited Workshop on Opportunistic RF Localization for Next Generation Wireless Devices, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, June 2008.

Research

Goals Better understanding for Indoor-Only environments with WiFi Can we develop a model that can predict the accuracy and precision?

Factors: Number of access points, path-loss exponent, variability of RSS, how close should grid points be

Can we use the model to develop guidelines for system deployment?

Challenges and Highlights

Lacked measurement data

We took extensive measurements in the IS Building and Hillman Library

Variability of the RSS is not Gaussian Even if it is assumed to be Gaussian, the constellation of fingerprints is highly irregular

Employed concept of neighborhood graphs to improve models precision

We observe clustering - actually good news for system deployment

People

Two Ph.D. students

Kamol Kaemerungsi (2004) Nattapong Swangmuang (2008) Impact of censored fingerprint data? Extension to ad hoc/sensor networks? Impact of/on dynamic spectrum access?

Future?

Thank You!