Design and Development Indoor Positioning

System
Noor ul Husnain Lodhi, Talha Zulfiqar, Aiman Malik
Department of Electrical Engineering COMSATS University Islamabad, Pakistan

 scenarios the localization of position in indoor environment is

Abstract— Indoor Positioning System (IPS) is a technology that
provides precise and accurate location information in indoor
environments. Since Global Positioning system (GPS) relies on line
of sight communications with a satellite transceiver, it does not
work within buildings. To overcome this challenge, IPS technology
could use RF based communication and locate humans and objects
indoors. The key advantage of RF based communication is its high
coverage range and non-line of sight communications. In this
project, we will investigate the optimal RF technology and
positioning method that enables a low cost and accurate IPS. We
develop a system for Wi-Fi signal strength based indoor
localization using fingerprinting matching method. The key
application of IPS system will be in developing assistive technology
for physically disabled, guiding people in places such as hospitals,
malls and indoor parking lots. Wi-Fi fingerprinting has drawn
significant attention over the past decade. This localization system
works by comparing Wi-Fi received signal strength (RSSI)
and already established location specific fingerprint map. Wi-Fi
fingerprinting technique consists of offline and online phase. In the
offline phase, the received signal strength(RSS) is collected by
mobile device to build fingerprint map; while in the online
phase, real-time measured RSS is matched with the fingerprint
map and location is decided on the bases of best match.
Keywords— Indoor positioning, Line of Sight, RSSI, Wi-Fi
fingerprinting,
I. INTRODUCTION
T oday in this modern world Google Position System is
gaining importance day by day by its fact of locating accurate
position in outside environment. GPS can locate position within
area of 1 to 3 meters. But GPS fails to detect position in indoor
environment as its works on LOS rule according to which there
is a direct transmission of signal between satellite and receiver.
So in indoor this signal can be attenuated by different objects.
The localization of position in indoor environment is off great
importance for many of the people in different scenarios
disabled persons that cannot search whole building for finding
their destination or the person who is entering the building for
the first time and he is not aware of that building's map. In such
necessary to help these people.There are lot of indoor
positioning systems that exists such as RF, infrared, Bluetooth,
ultra-wide band and magnetic etc. Many of these positioning
systems provide accurate results, but they depend on extra
hardware and large-scale infrastructures. Thus, these systems
are difficult to be widely installed due to lot of cost and require
specific environment.
So we have to design the system which can work efficiently in
indoor environment and should be cost effective. The WLAN
received signal strength based IPS is a localization system
which is able to locate the position of a user inside the building.
Unlike other positioning systems that require extra hardware
in indoor environments, the WLAN received signal strength
based systems are inexpensive due to the wide deployment of
wireless network infrastructures. Furthermore laptops, tablets,
computers or other mobile devices equipped with WLAN
technology are easy to be connected to WLAN systems.
Hence, the WLAN RSS positioning systems are best with
respect to the stability, flexibility and mobility.
Today companies are adopting free seating policies. The
problem to find a colleague and work place can be a time
consuming process for employees. The company or industry
where indoor positioning system well be deployed can remove
all the problems and make easier for everyone to work there.
Using this system employee can see where and when is the next
meeting.
One of the most important use of IPS is in the shopping malls. In
a large shopping mall where indoor positioning system will be
installed you can find any store and its products very easily and
help the customers that in which store there is some discount
through IPS application. This is also used to guide people inside
large indoor buildings and help them to locate their friends in
the building.

08/06/2018
 II. ADVANCED LOCALIZATION TECHNIQUES TABLE I
Technologies Comparison
Positioning Cost Performance Robustness
Many positioning systems have been developed over the years
Technique
for indoor localization. These positioning systems have been
developed using different technologies and different
infrastructure. Some of the known technologies are Infrared Infrared (IR) Reasonable Room level LOS
(IR), Radio Frequency (RF), UWB, Magnetic Positioning, and [2] price with Accuracy requirements
Bluetooth. cheap tags
A. Infrared:
Radio Inexpensive The accuracy Require at
Infrared (IR) positioning system is most common and widely
Frequency is up to 1m least 3 APs
used positioning systems.IR works on the mechanism of line of (RF) [3] to locate
sight communication which means there is direct target
communication between transmitter and receiver without
havening interference of any obstacle between them. Its range is Bluetooth High Error range is Using
limited within a room so it has room level accuracy. It is cheap [4] about 2 m to 3 Bluetooth
in price. This technology is present in every wireless device e.g. m, Room and IR at
level same time to
T. V, Printer, Mobiles, PDA etc. [2]
accuracy achieve high
B. Radio Frequency: robustness
Radio frequency is another technology used in IPS. This
Magnetic [5] Expensive The accuracy Influenced
technology uses radio waves to locate position indoors. Radio
magnetic is 1cm by metal
waves can travel thorough bodies, walls and obstacles so it is trackers elements
easy to locate position inside. Triangulation and fingerprinting
techniques are widely used in RF-based positioning systems. Ultra-Wide Expensive The accuracy Good
Fingerprinting technique is used in complex indoor positioning. Band tags and is 10-30 cm
Uses location related characteristics such as RSS and location (UWB) [6] sensor
information of the transmitters to calculate the location of a user
or a device. It is cheap in price and its accuracy is about 1m. [3] III. PROJECT FRAMEWORK
C. Bluetooth: We are use WLAN technology which has been deployed in
According to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Bluetooth is many places including hospitals, train stations, airports,
about vicinity, not about exact position. Bluetooth is an universities and airports etc. The WLAN based positioning
application of WPAN. Bluetooth enables communication for system uses already deployed infrastructures in indoor
range of 100 meter. Network that links a wireless device using environment, which is a very cost effective solution.
Bluetooth technology uses mechanism of master/slave base
MAC protocol. Bluetooth chipsets are low cost which results in A) Wi-Fi Fingerprinting: The WI-FI fingerprinting technique
low price of Bluetooth devices. This technology is implanted in normally consists of two phases.
mobile phones, laptops PDA’s etc. [4]  Offline training phase in which our main goal is to build
fingerprinting database by measuring Wi-Fi signal
D. Magnetic:
strength in every reference position from 3 access
As the magnetic waves do not require line of sight rule so, in the
points from surrounding.
magnetic positioning system the position is located in the
presence of an obstacle. This positioning system offers high  Online determination phase determine the location of
accuracy and is expensive. [5] user by measuring Wi-Fi signal strength and then
E. Ultra-Wide Band: comparing it with already stored Wi-Fi signal strength
in fingerprinting database.
As in RF positioning system the signal is attenuated by the
obstacles in building so UWB positioning system was
In our Wi-Fi fingerprinting technique we are using Euclidean
introduced. In UWB positioning UWB pulses having short time
distance algorithm to find the location of user.
duration are sanded. Which on reflection make it possible to
filter out reflected signal from original signal. Due to this fact
UWB offers high accuracy and is expensive in cost. [6]
 furniture removing and adding can lead to a poor
Error (1) positioning. Thus, we should have to update and
maintain the fingerprinting database which is a
Where RSSIoff = received signal strength identification cumbersome task.
offline value in training phase,
RSSIon= received signal strength identification online in IV. SYSTEM DESIGN
determination phase
m= is the total number access points. The most important component of our project is a Raspberry Pi
model 3. We can call the raspberry pi a mini computer as it has
all the function a computer has.
The comparison which have best match or have least error is
the user location. A) Raspberry: As raspberry pi 3 is Wi-Fi enabled so it can
easily scan Wi-Fi networks in the surrounding. This is behaving
a transceiver tag and server as well. The radio map which we
have made at the start of our project is saved in locally made
database server in raspberry pi 3. User should have a tag which
is raspberry with touch screen on it to know its own position in
an indoor environment. Whenever a mobile user wants to be
located, the tag will receive signal strength from surrounding
APs and use positioning algorithms to find the best match or
nearest neighbors and then estimate the mobile user location.

B) Networks scan: First step of our project is to get signal

strength, mac address and its network SSID from surroundings
available networks. The signal strength measured from
available networks at any location represents the fingerprint of
Fig-1 Block Diagram Representing Logic of the System
that location. So, we are getting all these specs of Wi-Fi network
using python programming language from the command
B) Challenges in Fingerprinting Technique: We are “SudoIwlistwlan0 scan”. The utility called iwlist provides all
providing an accurate and cost effective indoor positioning sorts of information about wireless environment. The wlan0 in
system based on IEEE 802.11 wireless technique. This the command represent your device Wi-Fi card. WLAN is
system uses a Wi-Fi fingerprinting technique to creates a wireless local area network and 0 is the Wi-Fi card number.
radio map of the Wi-Fi signal strength (RSS) collected at When we run this command in command prompt in raspberry pi
known reference positions to find the location of a user. We then we get the following output. Which display wireless
have some problems in designing a Wi-Fi fingerprinting-based properties of Wi-Fi networks.
indoor positioning system. They are as follow:
 According to IEEE 802.11 the frequency range of
WLAN is 2.4 GHz which is also used by cell
phones, microwave ovens and other wireless
devices. In the determination phase in which we find
the location of user, any other device that operates in
this frequency range can cause the irregular Wi-Fi
signal strength patterns from the access points to
mobile user as the source of the interference and
thus user have inaccurate location.
 Human can also affect the indoor wireless signal
strength. A human user can weak the Wi-Fi signal
strength on the straight line between the access point
and the mobile device.
 Any changes in an indoor environment such as access Fig-2 scanning Wi-Fi networks
point replacing and upgradation like partitions,
After retrieving these three specs we are ready for making into their corresponding watt values using the following
fingerprinting database. ESSID just shows the network name formula,
but using Mac address we are posting our data i-e signal strength P(watt)=10^(dBm/10)/1000 (3)
in database in the form of list. After every scanning of networks, This watt value is then stored into database.
they are all come into random index number which is not best
way for numeric computation. So, we are just fixing the index
number that the signal strength of the three coming networks V. EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
which we have selected for our experiment place on their
specific index number i-e signal strength of our specific The experiment was conducted on the 2nd floor of our
network1 (AP1) is on index 0 , signal strength of network2 department of electrical engineering in Comsats University
(AP2) is on index 1 and network3 (AP3) on index 2 like, Islamabad. Figure shows the floor plan where experiment was
[AP1, AP2, AP3] (2) performed. This fool plan is created in python GUI library
called tkinter canvas.
C) Average of Wi-Fi signal strength: Indoor environments
are more complex then outdoor because there is a lot of signal
fluctuations in indoor due to fading of signals. This signal
fluctuation in the path of user can increase the errors and
inaccuracies. To minimize the fluctuation in the received signal
we are taking multiple values i-e 15 times with the delay of 0.5
seconds in every scanning in each location or block. Following
is the scanning of received signal at one location.

1 [-33,-73,-34]
2 [-35,-82,-34]
Fig-3 Floor Plan
3 [-37,-81,-36]
4 [-38,-80,-38] The localizing floor contain two access points installed within
and 3rd is nearly deployed. These three APs were chosen for
5 [-40,-80,-40]
localizing. Furthermore some APs which are installed all over
6 [-35,-81,-37] the building can be sensed in this area. There are about 40 to 45
APs that come in every scanning of networks but we picked only
7 [-37,-82,-37]
3 APs which we have selected they are,
8 [-33,-71,-31]
9 [-36,-76,-33] No SSID Mac Address

10 [-40,-76,-38] 1 CIIT smart students 00:A3:8E:C8:13:43

2 Eduroam 00:A3:8E:2B:EF:C3
11 [-45,-67,-46]
3 CIIT smart students 00:A3:8E:C8:13:41
12 [-47,-76,-47]
Table-3 Selected Networks
13 [-42,-75,-41]
These access points are operating according to IEEE standard
14 [-35,-81,-36]
802.11a and 802.11b/g. They are able to get Wi-Fi received
15 [-41,-77,-39] signal strength patterns for both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz frequency
Table-2 Wi-Fi signal strength bands. In our experiment no additional APs were installed and
no already installed APs were moved. The experiment was
We can see from the above fig that there is a lot of signal performed using an already installed infrastructure. The
fluctuation that produced from shadowing, multipath, fading, readings were taken in working hours with students passing
scattering and diffraction from objects which can lead the through the corridor and mostly students were using the internet.
accuracy of the user to be inaccurate. After scanning we took the The area of our experiment is approximately 30m as shown in
average and then convert that average value of received signals figure. For this experiment 14 reference positions were defined
and the distance between one reference positions to other
position was approximately 3m. In each reference position we
collected 15 RSS samples and averaged them before posting to
database. Following table shows the average RSSI values that
are taken form 14 reference positions basically this is a
fingerprinting database.
to a particular location then it shows the location sometimes
exact accurate and some time it shows the nearest or adjacent
block. Following figure is our area of our 2nd experiment.

Block Signal_dBm
ID
0 [-81,-64,-80]
1 [-70,-52,-69]
2 [-71,-39,-72]

3 [-60,-58,-59]
4 [-63,-53,-64]
5 [-80,-80,-80]
6 [-79,-71,-79]
7 [-59,-66,-58]
8 [-60,-68,-62]
9 [-59,-64,-60]
10 [-55,-69,-55]
11 [-68,-79,-69]
12 [-56,-61,-56]
13 [-48,-56,-49]
Table-4 RSS values
We can see from this table that at 0 position the values of AP1
and AP3 are very low as they away from that location and AP2
have stronger value. When user moves towards higher positions
then AP1 and AP3 getting stronger and AP2 is getting weaker.
1) Observation: When a user is moved with tag to
particular locations then we observe the following things,
 Whenever user goes to block 1 tag shows the location
of block 13 and block 1 both with some time difference
which shows that both blocks have same errors.
 When there is no one in floor mean just there is user
then our location is accurate in maximum time. When
some students are passing through the floor then signal
are degraded and user have the inaccurate location.
2nd experiment was performed on a corridor having 9 blocks
with 1m distance in every reference position. We took our own
access points two are mobile hotspots and 3rd was made by using
NodeMcu. We first measure the signal strength in every block
and then save it in the database. In 2nd step when tag was moved
Fig-4 Corridor
VI. CONCLUSION
In this thesis, we first introduced the WLAN indoor
location determination system, and then propose an RSS
fingerprinting indoor positioning system. We concluded
different experiments based on test and trial. We conclude that
when there is no obstacle between tag and Wi-Fi access point
then there is no multipath fading there is direct communication
between these two and user has accurate location. When there
obstacles like people walking in corridor then there is multipath
fading due to which signals attenuate and there is no direct
communication between tag and access points and so user has
inaccurate location.
1) Accuracy Improvement: We can improve accuracy of
our project by following techniques:
 By constructing database for each direction means in
every reference position take the RSS samples in four
directions (front, left, back and right) by difference of
90 degree angles.
 Treat every access point separate mean that when signal
strength of 1st access point is stronger than it will
search only that accompanied region and vice versa.
 By combining 2 different technologies like WLAN and
Ultra-wide band. WLAN has larger coverage area and
UWB helps to find more accurate position.
 By taking maximum reference positions.
 VII. FUTURE WORK advances and comparisons. IEEE Communications
Surveys & Tutorials, 18(1), 466-490.
The work done by us is just a sample of the IPS. This project is [10] Dinh-Van, N., Nashashibi, F., Thanh-Huong, N., &
Castelli, E. (2017, March). Indoor Intelligent Vehicle
implemented on small scale. In future much advancement can
localization using WiFi received signal strength
be made in this project to make it more accurate and more indicator. In Microwaves for Intelligent Mobility
efficient. Many new technologies can be used to make this (ICMIM), 2017 IEEE MTT-S International
project work on large scale and to enhance its accuracy. Conference on (pp. 33-36). IEEE.
In near future it is expected that crowd sensing theorem can also
be applied in this project. Basically it is a technique in which
people will have devices that have ability of sensing and
computing collectively shared information to measure and
analyze any process of their interest. Through this technique IPS
will achieve high level accuracy in determining position in
indoor environment.

We have performed our experiments on a very small scale but

IPS is not just restricted to this small scale. It is assumed that in
near future IPS will be successfully implemented in various
buildings, hospitals etc.

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