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Comparison of Wireless Indoor

Positioning Technologies

- An Ekahau Whitepaper –

Copyright Ekahau Inc. 2000-2005


1 POSITIONING DEFINED................................................................................................. 3
2 RADIO FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID)............................................................ 4
3 INFRARED (IR) ............................................................................................................... 5
4 SENSOR NETWORKS.................................................................................................... 5
5 ULTRA-WIDEBAND (UWB)............................................................................................ 6
6 GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM (GPS) ...................................................................... 6
7 STANDARD WI-FI-BASED POSITIONING .................................................................... 7
8 CONCLUSION............................................................................................................... 10

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This paper discusses the various types of positioning technologies as the basis for realizing
mobile, location-aware system solutions.

1 Positioning Defined
A positioning system determines the location of an object (“client”) in a particular space, such
as an enterprise facility or warehouse. Ideally, the positioning is done in real time, with the
ability to track the location of the object as it move through a space. By offering the
coordinates of an object, positioning technologies realize a vast number of beneficial,
location-aware solutions:
• Local information pushing. In this case, a
positioning system sends valuable information to a
client based on the client’s location. For example, a
processing plant may push workflow information to
employees regarding operating and safety procedures
relevant to their locations in the plant. The positioning
system tracks each employee and has knowledge of
the floor plan of the facility as well as the procedures.
When an employee steps within a defined perimeter
of a particular area, such as a packaging department,
the positioning system displays on a person’s PDA the
steps on for the work needing to be done in that area.
This significantly increases efficiency and safety by
ensuring that employees follow carefully designed
guidelines.
• Centralized tracking. In
some cases, it’s
advantageous to keep tabs
on the location of objects.
With centralized tracking, a
positioning system
continuously stores and
displays the position
information to an operator.
This leads to more effective
management of assets. As
an example, a hospital can
track patients in an
operating room to analyze and remove bottlenecks in the flow of work to increase
throughput and ultimately the quality of care. Historical workflow data and asset usage
per location can provide
invaluable information in
optimizing a variety of processes.

• Decentralized tracking. This


goes a step further than
centralized tracking by having the
centralized station broadcast
client positions to all clients. As a
result, each client knows the

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position of other clients in relation to themselves. With this capability, it’s possible to
exploit the location of other users to make better decisions, such as in emergency
response to natural disasters and terrorist attacks. In these situations firefighters, for
example, can better spread out and make decisions when responding to a massive fire
when they can know the position of each of the other firefighters.
• Navigating. Positioning systems make navigation simple by supplying the x-y
coordinates of a client superimposed onto a map of a particular area. When knowing their
location, a user discovers how to proceed to a specific location in a timely manner.
Libraries, for example, have found this form of positioning very useful for patrons. A
person looking for a book carries a PDA that offers an electronic map of the library and
the person’s location. After entering book information, the PDA clearly illustrates the
place of the book on the map. After following some simple directions that the PDA offers,
the patron finds the book much faster, without the help of library staff.

2 Active Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)


An Active RFID location system includes proprietary RFID scanners installed throughout a
facility that interrogate either active (radio transceivers) or passive tags that attach to objects.
Active tags use batteries and allow up to a twenty foot range between the scanner and the
tags. Passive tags don’t use batteries, and they receive energy when being scanned. The
radio waves emitted by an RFID scanner energize a passive tag long enough for the tag to
transmit its code to the scanner. Passive tags, however, must be relatively close (within
inches or a few feet ) to the scanner. As a result, radio transceivers are the most common
type of RFID tag ( Active RFID Tag ) found in positioning systems.
Active RFID tags contain electronic codes that identify one tag from another. A centralized
station stores the tag codes that the scanners collect. Because the scanners are placed in
known positions throughout a facility, the centralized station is able to identify and display the
location of each tag (and of course the client device that the tag corresponds with).
Active RFID systems determine position based merely on the presence of the object in a
particular area, within range of a RFID scanner. When a person wearing an Active RFID tag
enters a room, for instance, the system indicates the existence of that person as soon as it
detects the tag’s signal. As a result, the accuracy of an Active RFID system is highly
dependent on the positioning of the scanners. One scanner per room only provides location
accuracy to the size of the room.
The cost of installing additional RFID scanners for finer tracking is cost-prohibitive for most
applications because of the relatively high cost for multiple scanners per room or area. As a
result, it’s not practical to use RFID to provide real-time tracking of objects. In addition, the
deployment of an RFID system over a large campus or enterprise area is very expensive
because of the need for installing a multitude of scanners completely separate from the
corporate network. Also, changing the layout of a manufacturing plant or moving walls in an
office requires remounting and rewiring of the RFID readers. This is a major problem in
frequently changing environments or in complex indoor environments.
An issue with the proprietary hardware used with RFID systems is that the resulting
deployments are difficult and costly to scale up to support a larger numbers of users.
Proprietary hardware is usually only available from a single vendor, making equipment prices
higher than standards-based solutions. In some instances, vendors may even go out of
business, making the hardware obsolete. Standards-based solutions are certainly preferable
in order to reduce these costs and operational support risks.
In addition, some RFID systems operate in the same frequency band as wireless LANs,
which poses RF interference issues for companies needing wireless LAN connectivity for

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mobile data applications. It’s nearly impossible to ensure that the RFID system and the
wireless LAN are operating on different, non-interfering channels throughout the facility. The
continual transmissions taking place in a RFID system causes a decrease in throughput in
the nearby wireless data network.

3 Infrared (IR)
Similar to using RFID, an IR location system determines position of an object based on the
presence of an object, which as mentioned before makes real-time tracking not practical to
implement. Each object being tracked includes a proprietary emitter that periodically
transmits an IR beacon containing a unique code. Infrared light is invisible to the human eye
under most conditions, so people can’t see the beacons. Specialized IR receivers placed
throughout the facility detect the beacons and determine the approximate position of the
object because of the known location of the IR receiver.
An IR system is practically immune to interference, largely because most other wireless
communications systems operate in the RF spectrum far below the frequencies of light.
Because IR signals don’t penetrate opaque materials, such as walls and ceilings, an IR
tracking system must often have several receivers in each room to avoid “losing” tracked
objects as they go around corners and behind office partitions. The orientation of the IR Tag
to the IR reader can also cause problems if for instance the tracked asset itself is blocking
the line of sight view from the IR Tag to the reader. In addition to the proprietary nature of IR
systems, this adds to the cost and complexity of the overall solutions and as with Active
RFID systems, scaling these proprietary solutions can become very costly endeavors.

4 Sensor Networks
In a sensor network solution, clients include a battery-powered radio module that transmits a
RF beacon containing a unique identification number from every five seconds once each
hour. Other types of proprietary sensor networks include those that operate by measuring
the time is takes for a signal to travel between the sensor and the trackec object, commonly
referred to as Time Difference of Arrival ( TDOA ). These systems makes use of modified
Wi-Fi access points or separate sensors installed throughout a facility that receive the
beacons, which are proprietary data packets containing the identity of the client in the case
of TDOA timing information of the packets transmitted. Centralized software then interprets
the position of a particular client using a triangulation method based on differences in signal
strength measurements retrieved from three or more access points or by using a serried of
calculations to interpret the timing information obtained by the proprietary sensors.

Triangulation based methods do not usually produce very accurate positioning results and
are very susceptible to errors caused by walls, furniture and other elements in the
environment This has generally lead to the failure and disappearance of many such systems
off the market.
TDOA systems also rely on having a relatively clear line of sight between the sensor and the
tag. In complex environments such as factories and hospitals, TDOA systems would require
an exceptionally high number of sensors to achieve decent positional accuracy which in turn
may completely destroy the business case for a location tracking system. TDOA systems on
the other hand perform better in outdoor spaces where there are fewer obstructions blocking
the signal path between the sensors and the tags. In this type of environment combining
GPS with WiFi may however be a more cost-effective alternative.
Most of the sensor network tracking solutions allow the access points to carry typical data
traffic associated with Wi-Fi users. This is a strong benefit over the other positioning

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systems, such as RFID and IR that make use of only proprietary equipment. Because the
sensor network access points include proprietary enhancements that enable the tracking
mechanisms, however, users must purchase and support sole source hardware for wireless
LAN applications. This severely limits scalability and increases costs for support.
Most sensor network solutions allow the setting of beacon rate for each tag in order to trade
off battery life with accuracy. Higher beacon rates are best for fast moving objects; whereas,
lower beacon rates are better for slower moving objects. The beacon rate should be set just
fast enough to capture position at a rate acceptable to the application but slow enough to
conserve battery power within practical values.
The problem, though, is that it’s not trivial to predict the speed at which objects will move. In
a hospital, for example, a doctor will not move much as they work in a patient’s room, but
within minutes the doctor may be running to assist an ailing patient in a different wing of a
hospital. The balance of beacon rate and battery conservation is difficult to achieve when
planning and supporting most sensor network positioning systems. Most users guess at
these values, leading to inefficient operation.
In practice, sensor network beacon rates must be kept low in order to achieve acceptable
battery conservation, with a beacon rate of once every minute or so. This diminishes the
real-time aspect of the system because position update will be relatively infrequent. A person
can go pretty far within a minute in between beacons. Thus, good accuracy is obtained by
having frequent beacons with reduced battery life.
Another issue with some sensor networks is that tags are relatively large, with each
measuring roughly two by four inches and weighing a couple ounces. The addition of this
size of device for tracking purposes can be unacceptable in some cases. It’s cumbersome to
place the tags on common client devices, such as PDAs, bar code scanners, and even
laptops.

5 Ultra-Wideband (UWB)
Similar to most other positioning solutions, UWB positioning systems have proprietary
scanners installed throughout the facility that continuously monitor UWB radio transceivers
attached to clients. UWB systems, however, operate using radio signals having very wide
bandwidth, and position calculations are made based on time-of-arrival techniques instead of
signal strength. This leads to fairly good location accuracy. By reading the time of arrival of a
beacon signal from a specific UWB radio transceiver from three or more scanners, for
instance, the position of the tag and applicable object can be found.
The use of UWB signalling considerably reduces signal impairments, such as RF
interference and multipath propagation, which makes the coexistence with Wi-Fi networks
acceptable. The issue, however, is that UWB makes use of technologies that are not
consistent with standards in use by most companies. Thus, UWB hardware is expensive to
purchase and scale. Furthermore the public use of UWB is still under consideration with the
FCC, which makes the future of this technology unclear.
UWB tags generally transmit several beacons each second, which makes batteries last
approximately one year. Beacon rates are usually adjustable, but, as with a sensor network
solution, the optimum rate is difficult to determine and battery replacement can be costly.

6 Global Positioning System (GPS)


GPS is commonly deployed in a variety of devices, such as handheld GPS receivers that
provide latitude and longitude as well as moving maps for navigating airplanes and
automobiles. The GPS consists of satellites in located geostationary orbit around the Earth.
These satellites remain in a fixed position relative to the ground and continuously transmit

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coded beacon signals. A GPS receiver located on a client receives simultaneous signals
from multiple GPS satellites and uses a time-based approach for calculating position. The
successful reception of at least three satellite signals is enough to calculate x-y coordinates.
With a greater number of satellite signals, however, accuracy is better, and it’s even possible
to determine elevation.
GPS solutions calculate range between satellites and receivers based on propagation time
and the fact that signals travel at the speed of light. With knowledge of range between itself
and several satellites, a particular GPS receiver can calculate its position. The range is great
enough for this approach to work fairly well with available clock accuracies. With positioning
systems installed indoors, except for UWB technologies, propagation delay is so small that
it’s difficult for most clocks to measure to determine range within accuracies consistent with
the actual ranges.
An issue is that GPS signals are relatively weak, making it only usable in areas with an
unobstructed path between the GPS receiver and the sky. In fact, GPS is not usable at all
inside buildings. Tree foliage also significantly limits GPS signals. Even narrow areas
surrounded by tall buildings, such as within large cities, will impair signal reception. In order
to enhance coverage of GPS, the Assisted GPS (A-GPS) systems are available. A-GPS use
ground-based GPS servers to extend range in large cities and in some cases inside facilities.
A-GPS solutions, however, are very costly to deploy.
As with the positioning technologies discussed so far, GPS requires a dedicated chipset in
the client device. This entails the installation of GPS circuitry, which adds to the expense and
complexity of the user device.

7 Standard WiFi-based Positioning


The critical issues of the positioning technologies discussed so far
include the proprietary nature of the scanners and tags, needs for
an infrastructure that is completely separate from a company’s
data network, and limited real-time operation. These common
attributes make the systems costly to deploy, scale, and support.
In some cases, the negative characteristics make the systems
unsuitable for highly mobile, location-aware or tracking
applications found in hospitals, warehouses, manufacturing
plants, universities, and enterprises.
Over the past few years, WiFi has been proliferating as the primary standard for wireless
LANs in company facilities and homes worldwide. Based on the IEEE 802.11 standards, Wi-
Fi addresses needs for secure, high performance mobile data networking. With the
widespread adoption of wireless LANs, Wi-Fi is an ideal technology as the basis for
positioning technologies.
As mentioned before, sensor network solutions make use of Wi-Fi access points. However,
the proprietary modification that traditional sensor solutions demand in access points is a
major drawback due to the need for sole source acquisitions of the products. In addition,
sensor solutions generally require the installation of specialized, proprietary transmitters on
the devices being tracked.
A standard WiFi-based positioning system, such as the one offered by
Ekahau, is completely software-based and utilizes existing Wi-Fi access
points installed in a facility and radio cards already present in the user
devices. Ekahau also offers a WiFi-based radio tag that uses industry
standard components that adhere to the 802.11 standards. This approach
allows for the use of commercial off-the-shelf hardware and drivers to

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produce a standards-based radio tag that can communicate bi-directionally over the 802.11
network.

Ekahau’s standard WiFi-based solution is completely vendor-agnostic in terms of hardware.


Wi-Fi cards come in many different form factors, such as PC Card and Compact Flash as
well as built into newer PDAs, laptops, tablet computers and a variety of other purpose built
devices. Thus, a standard WiFi-based positioning system can realize any type of location-
aware application that involves PDAs, laptops, bar code scanners, voice-over-IP phones and
other 802.11 enabled devices. For embedded solutions,
there is no need for the client to include a specialized tag,
transmitter, or receiver.
Because of the entire use of standards-based hardware,
such as 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a, a standard WiFi-
based solution rides the installed based and economies of
scale of the networks and end user devices that are
proliferating today. Without the need for additional
hardware, a company can install the system much faster
and significantly reduce initial and long-term support costs. A common
infrastructure supports both the data network and the positioning system,
something companies strive for. The positioning system works wherever
there is Wi-Fi coverage. If the clients are outside of the Wi-Fi coverage area,
the system will know the last known location – and when the clients come
back the tracking continues.
In addition to cost savings in hardware, a standards WiFi-based positioning system
significantly reduces the potential for RF interference. The total Wi-Fi positioning system
shares the same network along with other network clients, so there is no additional
installation of a separate wireless network (as RFID requires) that may cause RF
interference with the existing wireless network. Most wireless LANs are underutilized, leaving
plenty of capacity available for location-aware applications. Thus, WiFi is an ideal
infrastructure for positioning systems.
The Ekahau Wi-Fi positioning solution includes the following components:
• Ekahau Client™: Software client program that runs
transparently in the background of a client device,
such as a laptop computer, PDA or embedded Wi-Fi
device. The Ekahau client is available in Windows
2K/XP, Win CE/PPC, Palm and Linux OS versions.
The Ekahau Client can also provide end-users a
powerful “opt-in” function to turn tracking on of off.

• Ekahau Positioning Engine™: Software that


runs on a desktop or rack-mounted server and
calculates the client devices’ position attributes,
such as x-y coordinates, heading, and speed.
The Positioning Engine is a Java-based system
that can be run on Windows XP, Linux, Solaris

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and a number of Unix variants.

• Ekahau Manager™: Application software for system administrators for creating and
maintaining the positioning model, tracking client devices on a map and analyzing the
positioning accuracy.

• Ekahau Application Framework and SDK: A set


of ready-made applications, tools and a
programming interface for application
developers creating location-aware solutions as
well as End-Users requiring an out-of-the-box
tracking application suite.
Ekahau uses the received signal strength indicator
(RSSI) as the basis for positioning and a
probabilistic framework for estimating the location of the tracked item. The framework
compares the received RSSI values with the values stored in the Positioning Model to
determine the location of the device.
A strong advantage of the Ekahau positioning and tracking system is that it doesn’t require
any changes to an existing Wi-Fi network infrastructure. The Ekahau system is fully
software-based. Another benefit is that the signal strength values change relatively smoothly
with respect to changes in location, which means that the RSSI approach is not as sensitive
to measuring errors as other solutions encounter.

In a typical office
environment, the Ekahau
solution can achieve
down to one meter
average accuracy and
two to three meter
accuracy 99% of the time
Accuracy may vary
depending on the
environment type, access
point density, antenna
types and site calibration
density. Unlike other
positioning systems in
the market, the
positioning algorithm of
the Ekahau Positioning
Engine continues to
operate effectively in the
presence of multi-path
issues, complex ““RF
unfriendly environments
where one may have RF
interference, and access
point break-downs.

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8 Conclusion
Standard WiFi-based positioning, which Ekahau implements, is the most effective method for
deploying location-aware applications. The following provides a summary of the
corresponding advantages:
• Covers both indoor and outdoor areas accurately – Fewer limitations as compared to
other positioning technologies.
• Quick installation – Install the system in days or weeks rather than months or years for
proprietary networks, which allows users to begin generating a return on their investment
much quicker.
• Cost effective scalability – Start with a small deployment and easily enlarge the
positioning system as the number of access points increases.
• No disruption to existing operations – Installation rides over the existing Wi-Fi
infrastructure, resulting in no interruptions to operations during the installation phase.
• Standards-based and not dependent on any single proprietary infrastructure – The
wireless infrastructure is completely vendor agnostic.
• Can track using “soft tags” (client software) or hardware (Wi-Fi tags) – More cost effective
than alternatives.
• By relying on industry standard infrastructure, Ekahau is future-proof supporting 802.11
A/B/G today and new 802.11 variants in the future.
• A software-based solution is easier and more cost-effective to maintain over time.

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Contact Information
West Coast
Ekahau, Inc.
12930 Saratoga Avenue, Suite B-9
Saratoga, CA 95070
Tel: 1-866-4EKAHAU
Fax: 1-408-725 8405
Email: Sales-Americas@ekahau.com

East Coast
Ekahau, Inc.
1851 Alexander Bell Drive Suite 150
Reston VA 20191
Tel: 1-866-4EKAHAU
Tel: 1 703 860 2850
Fax:1 703 860 2028
Email: Sales-Americas@ekahau.com

Europe
Ekahau, Inc.
Tammasaarenlaituri 3
00180 Helsinki, Finland
Phone: +358 20 743 5910
Fax: +358 20 743 5919
Email: Sales-Europe@ekahau.com

Asia
Ekahau, Inc.
Suite 1002
Chuang’s Tower
30-32 Connaught Road Central
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 3426 4770
Fax: +852 3426 4061
Email: Sales-Asia@ekahau.com

www.ekahau.com
sales@ekahau.com
info@ekahau.com

Copyright © Ekahau, Inc. 2000-2004. All rights reserved. Ekahau, Ekahau Positioning Engine, Ekahau Manager, Ekahau Site
Calibration, Ekahau Rail Tracking and the Ekahau logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Ekahau Corporation.
Other product and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or trade names of their respective owners.

Copyright Ekahau Inc. 2000-2005

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