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Multi-Channel Distance Measurement With ZigBee
Multi-Channel Distance Measurement With ZigBee
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846 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
Fig. 2. (a) Transmitter and (b) receiver building blocks and signals. Building blocks in the transmitter are contained in a commercial Texas Instruments CC2420
IEEE 802.15.4 radio chip with the exception of an external clock source and the antenna. Receiver consists of an amplifier, local oscillator, mixer, and a digital
storage oscilloscope or analog-to-digital converter. Microcontroller and signal processor in transmitter and receiver are not shown.
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As the amplitude enters the criterion linearly, (2) is a energy and can be omitted if is known. In this formula-
separable optimization problem, and may therefore be esti- tion, is equivalent to the ambiguity function that is known
mated independently from the other parameters as [6] in radar signal processing, where it is used for estimation of the
time-of-travel and Doppler shift experienced by the transmitted
signals [8]–[10]. Typically a distinction is drawn between nar-
rowband and wideband ambiguity functions where the signal is
either only shifted in frequency, or stretched along the time axis.
In the case of uncertain oscillator frequencies in transmitter and
receiver in combination with frequency downconversion, as it is
present in the proposed positioning system, both shifting along
(3) the frequency-axis and stretching in time occurs. These effects
are covered by parameters and , respectively.
As indicated earlier, the numerators in (4) take the form of a
discrete-time correlation of the two signals, where for constant
which after insertion in (2) leads to the equivalent problem of and the first expression is a correlation in time-domain
maximizing criterion given as with parameter , and for constant and the second ex-
pression is a correlation in frequency-domain with parameter
. From a different point of view, the first numerator takes the
form of a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) of the complex-con-
jugate product of two signals for constant and with fre-
quency-parameter , the second numerator the form of an in-
verse DFT for constant and with time-parameter . Since
neither or will usually take integer values, the DFT formu-
lation offers a convenient means of estimating either parameter
with arbitrary precision by using zero-padding [11], if the other
parameters are held fixed. Instead of a multidimensional opti-
mization for , , and , an alternating iterative approach
using the DFT for the estimation of and , and (if neces-
(4) sary) an optimization for , can be used.
For a ZigBee transmit signal limited in time to 32 µs or 64
chips, zero-padded by a factor of four, and limited to a band-
where and are given as
width of 8 MHz, the ambiguity function is shown in Fig. 4(a).
The stretch in time-domain described by is assumed to be
(5) known, so that depends on the time- and frequency-shift pa-
rameters and only. A smooth peak decaying after four
(6) samples due to the zero-padding factor of approximately 4 in ei-
ther domain indicates that an iterative maximization will likely
and are therefore the (discrete) Fourier transforms of and converge to the global maximum for a reasonable starting point.
, respectively. For (3) and (4) to hold, we have assumed the For this purpose, a modified optimization criterion may be
following: used, in which parameter is eliminated, so that as a first step
• for ; of iterative correlation an initial value for can be found. Using
• for ; the absolute value of spectra and defining signals and as
which are two demands that strictly cannot be met simultane-
ously. By adding adequate margins to the discretized signals in
time and frequency domain, that is, by choosing a sampling rate
far in excess of the signal bandwidth, and a sampling duration
much longer than the packet length; however, the assumptions
hold to a good approximation. Then it is ensured that a shift by
in time-domain and a shift by in frequency-domain do not
(9)
shift the measured signal outside the observation window, and
it can be assumed that due to the conservation of signal energy
allows us to write as
(7)
(8)
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848 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
Fig. 4. Approximate normalized ambiguity function for a ZigBee transmit signal limited in time and frequency domain with a zero-padding factor of approxi-
mately four in both domains. Criterion (a) J for time- and frequency-shift estimation, and (b) J~ for frequency-shift estimation only.
whose maximum for may be used for solver initializa- maximum object distance that can be computed from the
tion. Fig. 4(b) shows the corresponding ambiguity function frequency-domain spacing of measurements as
depending only on the frequency shift parameter. With this
initialization approach, an appropriate starting point for the (12)
iterative maximization of criterion could be found in all
simulated or measured situations. Due to the favorable correla- For a given bandwidth , an increase of the number of sam-
tion properties of IEEE 802.15.4 packets in time and frequency pling points will therefore likewise increase the unambiguous
domain, the search for a starting point has thus been found to measurement range.
be an uncritical aspect of the iterative correlation. In the 2.4-GHz band, the IEEE 802.15.4 standard [13] defines
Note that the DFT-based approach of maximizing the ambi- direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) and offset quadrature
guity function may be replaced by other time-delay and -stretch phase-shift keying (OQPSK) with half-sine pulse shaping and a
estimators; for further reference, the reader is referred to [12]. chip rate of 2 Mchip/s as modulation scheme. There are 16 avail-
able data channels that are spaced MHz
apart between 2.405 and 2.480 GHz, resulting in a total band-
IV. WIDEBAND POSITION MEASUREMENT
width of MHz. Data is transferred in
It is well-known that the resolution of range estimates in radar packets of limited duration (e.g., 1280 chips), each of which
and positioning systems is inversely proportional to the used may be transmitted in a different frequency-channel, thus time-
signal bandwidth. Very roughly, the minimum distance be- and frequency-division multiple access (TDMA/FDMA) is
tween two objects below which they cannot be discriminated is provided for. Fig. 5 shows an exemplary sequence of ZigBee
given by [9] packets consecutively transmitted in different channels in
time and frequency domain. Owing to the chip rate, the total
(11) two-sided signal bandwidth usable for positioning in a single
channel is approximately 2 MHz, as indicated by vertical lines
with angular frequency bandwidth in rad/s . While (11) does in Fig. 5(b).
not consider factors such as noise level or the particular esti- From the foregoing discussion it can be concluded that to
mator that is used, it can be used as a general rule of thumb. The obtain low-bias range estimates from a microwave positioning
minimum resolution of a positioning- or radar-system also has a system, a large system bandwidth is required. A bandwidth of
direct influence on the bias of range estimates if multipath-prop- 2 MHz when used for range estimation corresponds to a reso-
agation is involved. In environments containing large, reflective lution of approximately m, which is hardly satisfac-
objects, such as in industrial buildings with metal walls, parts tory in any application where an even roughly accurate range
of the traveling electromagnetic wave usually reach the receiver estimate is required, as any signal path differing from the main
by reflection off a surface, and therefore on a slightly longer path by less than 75 m in length will inevitably perturb the range
path. With limited transmission bandwidth, such perturbations estimate. Note that this value is the theoretical raw resolution
interfere with the signal on the direct path, and alter the derived without the application of any multipath mitigation techniques.
range estimates. An approach to solve this problem is the utilization of not only
Related to the minimum object distance by the number of a single, but multiple measurements at different center frequen-
samples taken over the bandwidth in frequency-domain is the cies for each range estimate, to increase the total signal band-
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PICHLER et al.: MULTI-CHANNEL DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH IEEE 802.15.4 (ZIGBEE) DEVICES 849
Fig. 5. Simulation of a sequence of 16 consecutively transmitted IEEE 802.15.4 data packets in different channels with unity amplitude. (a) Transmitted packets
s with a length of 1280 chips in time-domain with packet index p, and (b) corresponding signal spectrum S with channels spaced 5 MHz between 2405 and
2480 MHz in frequency-domain with channel index c. Vertical lines in part (b) indicate the 2-MHz bandwidth in single channels.
Fig. 6. Correlation of ZigBee data packets J normalized to the ideal optimization criterion J for a multipath scenario at (a), (b) two different zoom levels. Solid
line: multiple correlations of single-channel measurements, individual peak locations and arithmetic mean. Dashed line: single correlation of multiple-channel
measurement, and peak location. True peak location and location of perturbing peak.
width. With a total bandwidth of about 80 MHz as the differ- its maximum varies heavily with channel center frequency, as it
ence between highest and lowest signal frequency, the achiev- can be observed in part (b) of the figure. This variation in both
able resolution can be improved by a factor of approximately 40 amplitude and range is due to the interaction between the direct
to m; note that since resolution is also influenced path and the unwanted path causing constructive or destructive
by many other factors such as signal shape, utilized bandwidth, interference at different center frequencies. The standard devi-
etc., this rule of thumb may serve only as a very rough estimate. ation of individual results is 4.112 m, the arithmetic mean is in
Since single measurements can only cover a single channel, a the vicinity of the true peak location, but has a large bias of ap-
strategy for combining individual measurements to an improved proximately 237 mm.
position estimate is required.
B. Coherent Combination of Channel Data
A. Combination of Final Range Estimates Much higher accuracies than with the simple approach can
The simplest way of combining measurements from multiple be achieved by combining the individual measurements before
channels is to derive a range estimate from each channel’s raw obtaining a range result, so that instead of averaging over 16
data from the total TDOA, and compute the arithmetic mean measurements with an individual bandwidth of 2 MHz, the
from the 16 intermediary range results. While being easy to im- full 80 MHz bandwidth is exploited. A necessary condition for
plement, this approach does not yield optimum results, since the application of this method is that signals are synthesized
bias caused by multi-path wave propagation will change from and processed in a way that phase relationships are preserved
channel to channel, but is unlikely to cancel over the full signal even in the presence of (unknown) frequency inaccuracies. In
bandwidth. Section VI we will propose a frequency-hopping scheme that
As an illustrative example, we use a simulation of a posi- allows this demand to be met.
tioning scenario with a direct path of length m and When a single signal is composed of a coherent superposition
amplitude 1, and an unwanted path of 14 m and amplitude 0.4. of individual measurements, the peak in the optimization crite-
Fig. 6 shows the optimization criterion (that is, the correlation rion takes a much narrower shape, as can be seen in the solid
in time-domain) normalized to the maximum value of the ideal line in Fig. 6. In this case, the unwanted path at 14 m is well
single-path criterion over distance . The dashed lines rep- separated from the main peak, and therefore hardly influences
resent the correlation peak for each of the 16 channels. Due to the ranging result, reducing the bias to only 2 mm. Although we
the limited bandwidth in single channels, the peak is broad and will propose an evaluation approach that does not require the
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850 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
Fig. 7. Timing relations in transmitter and receiver. " Vertical arrows indicate zero crossings of the respective signals, labeled with number of zero crossings since
zero phase.
relatively memory- and time-consuming synthesis of a single V. TRANSMITTED AND RECEIVED SIGNALS
signal from multiple measurements in different receivers, this
As a mathematical basis for the following proposition of a
example should illustrate the advantage of coherent signal pro-
signal generation and evaluation strategy, we derive expres-
cessing over the simple averaging approach in achievable reso-
sions for the transmitted and received signals in this section.
lution and bias.
Positions of all transmitters and receivers are assumed to be
C. Comparison to GNSS and GPS constant for the sake of simplicity. The proposed positioning
method has been shown to be applicable to moving targets
To get an idea of the multipath performance of the proposed
also, but the mathematical derivation of this case is considered
positioning system, it can be compared to Global Navigation
Satellite Systems (GNSS) and to Global Positioning System outside the scope of this work. We allow slightly imperfect
(GPS) in particular. The civil GPS carrier L1 at 1575.42 MHz frequency references, that is, all oscillators are assumed to ex-
comprises one 1.023 MHz Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum hibit an unknown but constant relative frequency error. Note
(DSSS) code per satellite with Binary Phase Shift Keying that frequency errors in different oscillators are independent
(BPSK) modulation and a fixed length of 1023 bins each. The from each other. Since we describe signals originating from
most common approach for locking onto these codes is sliding multiple transmitters that are received by multiple receivers, in
correlation of the received signal with all known satellite codes accordance with the foregoing section and the block diagram
in time domain. A larger number of correlators can reduce the in Fig. 2 we use a notation with superscripts , , and
time-to-first-fix and increase accuracy and reliability in tracking to denote the appropriate transmitter and receiver .
scenarios [14]. Approaches based on Fourier transform have That is, quantities occurring only in transmitter are denoted
been implemented as well, leading to very short fix times and by superscript , quantities that relate to transmitter and
highest accuracy [15]. They can be used for benchmarking receiver are denoted by , etc. Furthermore, to in-
purposes and seem to be helpful for the exploration of GNSS dicate the respective signal source or affiliation, subscripts
indoor positioning. Without multipaths, the accuracy of civil (transmitter clock), (chip rate/data), (radio frequency),
GPS can be very good, especially if Differential GPS (DGPS) (local oscillator), (sampling clock), (mixer output),
is used for minimizing the ionospheric and tropospheric in- (baseband), and (final, after decimation) are used. Sig-
fluences in the region of operation [16]. For correlations in nals and quantities themselves are denoted by (signal),
time domain the accuracy can be in the range of decimeters. (angular frequency), (phase), (period), (time, instants
Additional carrier-phase tracking at one (L1) or two frequen- of rising signal edges), and (delay). To support the math-
cies (L1 and L2) can even further increase accuracy to the ematical derivation, timing relations of all relevant signals in
millimeter range for static scenarios [17]. With all progress transmitter and receiver are illustrated in Fig. 7. The instants
in GNSS research over the past three decades, the resolution of rising clock edges or signal crossings are indicated by
of multipaths superimposing the direct path is still limited vertical arrows along the time axes (for higher frequencies, not
to a certain amount. The 3-dB bandwidth of the L1 codes is all zero crossings are shown), the number to the right of each
approximately 2 MHz, which results in a multipath resolution arrow denotes the number of zero crossings that have occurred
capability of 75 m according to (11). This manifests in large since zero phase of the respective signal.
errors while navigating in street canyons or deep valleys, espe- In the ZigBee transmitter chip that is used in our setup, all
cially if the multipath power is of the same magnitude as the frequencies are derived from a single quartz with a nominal
direct path power [18]. Future modifications to GPS and other frequency of MHz and clock period
GNSS will use broader signals and multiple (sub) carriers for ns. Any relative quartz frequency error will there-
an enhancement in multi-path resolution [19], [20]. fore identically affect all timing relations in the transmitter. An
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PICHLER et al.: MULTI-CHANNEL DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH IEEE 802.15.4 (ZIGBEE) DEVICES 851
expression for the instantaneous clock phase in transmitter RF carrier. According to IEEE 802.15.4 channel assignments,
is then given by the nominal RF center angular frequency in channel is
MHz for , which corre-
(13) sponds to a signal period of . To derive an
expression for the RF signal phase we must consider an offset
with respect to . Similarly to the data clock, the RF signal
is derived from the main quartz clock and will therefore have its
where is the (unknown) phase of the clock oscillator at zero phase at a fixed phase offset relative to a particular signal
, the relative oscillator frequency error, the edge of the main clock occurring edges after . There-
true oscillator frequency, and the clock period. Assuming fore, the RF phase in the th packet that is transmitted in channel
a sinusoidal or equivalent rectangular signal, the 0th rising edge is given by
occurs at , so that , as
indicated on the first axis in Fig. 7. Note that the definition of
and of the 0th zero crossing is arbitrary, but once chosen,
it must remain unchanged.
As a clocked process, the data generation in the digital mod-
ulator will have a fixed phase relationship with the signal from (16)
the main quartz. We describe the data chip clock with nom-
inal angular frequency MHz and period The true signal frequency and period, respectively, are
ns, whose zero-crossings mark the start of each
DSSS chip in the th transmitted data packet, in terms of its and , the initial phase is . The timing of the RF
phase . The 0th chip will then be generated after a phase signal for upconversion is found on the third axis in Fig. 7. Since
offset relative to an unknown edge of the main transmitter for every channel an unknown but unique method is applied to
clock. Mathematically, the data clock phase may therefore be synthesize the RF signal from the main clock, the initial phase
written as depends on the channel, but not directly on the trans-
mitter or the data sequence.
Upconversion of the baseband signal to RF in the mixer may
mathematically be described by a multiplication. For simplicity
we use a complex notation and omit signal components on the
negative frequency axis. For a sequence of packets with index
(14) , where data sequence and channel
are used in the respective packets, the total transmitted signal is
In (14), the number of quartz clock edges between and given by
the reference edge for generation of the th data packet is de-
noted by , and and are the true chip frequency
and period, respectively. These relationships are indicated on (17)
the second axis of Fig. 7. Note that is independent of both
the transmitter and the actual data. Note that the shift in time between consecutive packets is de-
Before upconversion to radio frequency in the transmitter, scribed by choosing integers and appropriately.
the nominal generated signal for a particular data sequence As we assume a static setup, the transmitted signal experi-
starting at at the output of the filter is in the absence ences a constant delay during propagation from trans-
of error. Due to the frequency deviation and a shift in time for mitter to receiver , as indicated on the fourth axis in Fig. 7.
consecutively generated packets, however, the nominal signal In the absence of loss, noise, distortion, and multipath propaga-
appears stretched and shifted, so that the true data signal for the tion, the received signal is therefore given as a delayed copy of
th packet in which data sequence is transmitted is given the transmitted signal
by
(18)
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852 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
as seen on the fifth axis in Fig. 7, and the downconverted signal First, the signal is shifted to baseband by multiplication with
in complex notation by an appropriate discrete-time complex exponential with phase
(20) (25)
Downconversion is followed by sampling the signal at a rate that is, we obtain the baseband-signal as
larger than twice the total bandwidth, to facilitate digital pro-
cessing. Expression (20) describes the signal from as it is (26)
available at the mixer output in . In reality, the receivers will
Thereafter, decimation from to samples per packet is
receive signals from two or more transmitters simultaneously. If
easily performed for by taking every th
the transmission sequence is appropriately designed so that each
sample out of , leading to the final decimated signal
channel is only occupied by a single receiver at all times, a sepa-
ration of signals in both time and frequency domain is possible. (27)
We can therefore describe the finite-time signal in discrete-time
as a function of packet index and samples For MHz, the decimation process in-
within the packet, where the duration incorporates a single troduces only little error, since to a good approximation data
data packet. Sampling of the continuous-time signal occurs at packets are time-limited to , and the data bandwidth is well
instants contained within the channel spacing.
After insertion of all relevant signals into (27), we obtain a
signal of the form
(21)
(28)
as indicated on the last axis in Fig. 7, which corresponds to a
sampling clock with phase with parameters
(29)
(22)
(24)
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PICHLER et al.: MULTI-CHANNEL DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH IEEE 802.15.4 (ZIGBEE) DEVICES 853
(35) (38)
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854 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
A. Multipath-Propagation
For evaluating the effects of multipath propagation, the sce-
nario depicted in Fig. 10 was considered. The two receivers
and were placed a distance of 10 m apart from each other,
and transmitter was placed in the center. Transmitter was
(40) moved to 199 positions spaced 2.5 cm between and , i.e.,
m m . A reflective wall was placed at a distance from
By inserting common error magnitudes of several to several the linear setup that added a second, unwanted propagation path
tens of ppm for quartz frequency deviations, we find that the to each combination of transmitter and receiver, which was at-
terms containing the desired delay are several orders of mag- tenuated by 10 dB with respect to the direct path regardless of
nitude larger than the remaining error terms. Note that . The wall distance was modified between 0.2 m and 25
is ideally constant and proportional to the TDOA, and corre- m with a step size of 0.2 m.
sponds to a combination of individual ranging results according Fig. 11 shows the absolute root mean square error (RMSE)
to Section IV-A. The phase is dependent on the channel computed from the absolute error over all positions
center frequency and therefore a function of the channel. of transponder for every wall distance . It can be noted that
This direct proportionality is due to the coherent combination after the curves for time- and for phase-based evaluation from
of multiple measurements according to Section IV-B that is pos- and , respectively, are similar for small wall distances,
sible by virtue of the particular frequency-hopping sequence and they largely deviate for larger distances . This behavior can
the formulated demands on signal generation. Note that the indi- also be observed in Fig. 12, where the corresponding RMSE
vidual phase measurement (32) depends on numerous unknown error curves are plotted as a function of transmitter distance at
error terms and on the packet index . Without calibration or exemplary wall distances points m and m.
exact transmitter synchronization, these dependencies are to a For short perturbing paths the errors of phase- and delay-based
large part eliminated by the application of the frequency-hop- estimation show a relatively high correlation. For longer per-
ping scheme and the coherent combination of individual mea- turbing paths, the delay-based estimation error increases, while
surements that we propose, so that finally, we obtain a phase the phase-based error remains relatively small and constant.
term proportional to channel index . An exact TDOA es-
timate can now be derived from the slope of the phase term
B. Noise Sensitivity
as a function of the respective channel , e.g., by a linear least
squares fit. A simulation analysis on the sensitivity to noise was carried
It has to be noted that phase can only be determined out with a setup according to Fig. 1 with receivers placed 10 m
modulo . If the phase slope of as a function of channel apart, and receivers placed 5 m apart, symmetrically about the
exceeds , that is, if the range exceeds m, center. Discrete additive white Gaussian noise was applied to
the result becomes ambiguous with a periodicity of 15 m. In the received signals with a power level of 0 to 9 dB below the
this case, the TDOA result is used as an initial guess from signal level during transmission before sampling rate reduction
which the exact range is computed as the closest estimate of the from 250 MS/s to 8 MS/s, which corresponds to a noise level of
slope of [22]. approximately 15 to 24 dB after sampling rate reduction.
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PICHLER et al.: MULTI-CHANNEL DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH IEEE 802.15.4 (ZIGBEE) DEVICES 855
Fig. 9. Exemplary (a), (b) ideal, and (c), (d) measured truncated IEEE 802.15.4 signal in (a), (c) time, and (b), (d) frequency domain as used for simulations and
measurements. Gray line: signal before windowing; dotted line: Hann-window; dark line: signal after time-domain windowing.
Fig. 10. Simulation setup for the evaluation of multipath effects. A direct path
from T (solid line) and T (dashed line) to the receivers was superimposed by
an unwanted reflected path from T (dashed-dotted line) and T (dotted line) to
R and R . Fig. 11. Root mean square error (RMSE) of estimated versus true transponder
distance for delay-based (dashed line), and phase-based (solid line) estimation
over wall distance r in multi-path simulation. Exemplary points (dotted line)
for which the absolute estimation error is plotted as a function of transmitter
Statistical evaluations of the absolute measurement error distance r in Fig. 12.
are shown as box plot in Fig. 13 and given numerically in Table I,
where parts (a) give the values for estimates derived from ,
and parts (b) those for estimates from . A significant advan- the transmitter with known location was a dedicated master
tage of the phase-based over the delay-based estimation can be that transmitted a trigger packet before the start of the mea-
observed with a factor of approximately 50 independent of the surement sequence with a specified delay. Upon reception of
signal-to-noise ratio. the trigger packet, the dedicated slave transmitter started its
own frequency-hopping sequence after the same delay so that a
VIII. MEASUREMENTS rough synchronization with an accuracy of a few microseconds
To verify the proposed method in real-world scenarios, mea- was achieved. With the given parameterization of packets with
surements were carried out. For achieving a rough synchro- length 50 µs and a repetition period of 625 µs an overlap in time
nization between data packets in time and to prevent overlap, could easily be prevented by this method.
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856 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
Fig. 12. Absolute estimation error r^ for perturbing wall distances of (a), (b) 2.4 m, and (c), (d) 17.0 m for (a), (c) delay-based, and (b), (d) phase-based estimation
over transmitter distance r in multi-path simulation.
Fig. 13. Statistics of noise simulation errors for evaluation of (a) time shift n and (b) phase ' from 200 measurements at each signal-to-noise ratio
between 0 and 9 dB. Shown are 25%, 50%, and 75% quartiles as box, full data range as whiskers.
TABLE I
STATISTICS OF NOISE SIMULATION ERRORS FOR EVALUATION OF (a) TIME SHIFT n AND (b) PHASE ' FROM 200 MEASUREMENTS AT EACH
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO BETWEEN 0 AND 9 (dB). SAMPLE MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION (MEA, STD), 25%, 50%, AND 75% QUARTILES
(25Q, MED, 75Q), AND INTER-QUARTILE RANGE (IQR). ALL TABLE VALUES IN METERS
A. Outdoor Scenario nario is shown in Fig. 14(a). It can be observed that while there
are no prominent reflective objects in the direct vicinity of trans-
A measurement according to the system setup shown in Fig. 1 mitters or receivers, there are some cars and building walls in
was carried out in an outdoor-environment in a small park out- some distance. For each of the nominal receiver and transmitter
side an office building. A photograph of the measurement sce- distances m a number of 200 individual mea-
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PICHLER et al.: MULTI-CHANNEL DISTANCE MEASUREMENT WITH IEEE 802.15.4 (ZIGBEE) DEVICES 857
Fig. 14. Photographs of measurement scenarios. (a) Outdoor scenario in a park outside an office building with two transmitters and two receivers. (b) Inside
scenario in a cafeteria for 2-D measurement with two transmitters and four receivers.
Fig. 15. Statistics of outdoor measurement errors for evaluation of (a) time shift n and (b) phase ' from 200 measurements at each nominal distance r
between 0.0 and 9.0 m. Shown are 25%, 50%, and 75% quartiles as box, full data range as whiskers.
TABLE II
STATISTICS OF OUTDOOR MEASUREMENT ERRORS FOR EVALUATION OF (a) TIME SHIFT n AND (b) PHASE ' FROM 200 MEASUREMENTS AT
EACH NOMINAL DISTANCE r BETWEEN 0.0 AND 9.0 M. SAMPLE MEAN AND STANDARD DEVIATION (MEA, STD), 25%, 50%, AND 75% QUARTILES
(25Q, MED, 75Q), AND INTER-QUARTILE RANGE (IQR). ALL TABLE VALUES IN METERS
surement sequences was recorded. The system was parameter- B. Indoor Scenario
ized identical to the simulation setup regarding packet durations, An indoor scenario in a cafeteria, a photograph of which is
spacing, and sampling frequency. found in Fig. 14(b), was used for a 2-D position measurement
Statistical evaluations of the absolute measurement error using two transmitters and four receivers. Transmitter was
are shown as box plot in Fig. 15 and given numer- placed in the center of the setup, transmitter at three different
ically in Table II, where parts (a) give the values for estimates positions with coordinates , , and , at
derived from , and parts (b) those for estimates from . which 80, 124, and 128 measurements, respectively, were
For all nominal distances the ranging results from time-shifts taken. Phase curves were derived from the measurements
show both, a large bias of up to over 1 m, and large vari- of every one of six possible pairs of receivers, and the spec-
ations in the range of several tens of centimeters. If the slope trum of was computed according to [22]. Spectra
of the phase is used for evaluation, the bias decreases by from receiver combinations were additively superposed for an
roughly an order of magnitude, and the variations are reduced optimization criterion over the -plane, from which position
by approximately a factor of 5. estimates in - and -direction were computed.
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858 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN SIGNAL PROCESSING, VOL. 3, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
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proposed Galileo CBOC modulation in heavy multipath environment,” Mühl, Austria, in 1968. He received the Diploma En-
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signal plan,” InsideGNSS, pp. 43–58, Sep./Oct. 2007. hannes Kepler University, Linz, Austria, in 2000.
[21] S. L. Hahn, Hilbert Transforms in Signal Processing. Norwood, MA: Since 2000, he has been with the Institute for
Artech House, 1996. Communications and Information Engineering,
[22] S. Schwarzer, M. Vossiek, M. Pichler, and A. Stelzer, “Precise distance Johannes Kepler University, and since 2003 as an
Associate Professor. Since 2003, he has served as a
measurement with IEEE 802.15.4 (ZigBee) devices,” in Proc. IEEE
key researcher for the Linz Center of Competence in Mechatronics (LCM) and
Radio Wireless Symp. (RWS ’08), Orlando, FL, Jan. 22–24, 2008, pp.
now for the recently founded Austrian Center of Competence in Mechatronics
779–782.
(ACCM) and is responsible for numerous industrial projects. Since 2007,
he has been head of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Integrated Radar
Sensors. His research work focuses on microwave sensor systems for industrial
applications, RF- and microwave subsystems, ultrawideband technology, SAW
sensor systems and applications, as well as digital signal processing for sensor
signal evaluation. He has authored or coauthored more than 160 journal and
conference papers. He is a reviewer for international journals and conferences.
Dr. Stelzer received several awards, including the EEEfCOM Innovation
Award and the EuMA Radar Prize at the European Radar Conference. In 2008,
he received the IEEE-MTT Outstanding Young Engineer Award from the Mi-
crowave Theory and Techniques Society. He is a member of the Austrian OVE.
He served as an Associate Editor for the IEEE MICROWAVE AND WIRELESS
COMPONENTS LETTERS.
Markus Pichler (M’09) was born in Linz, Austria,
in 1976. He received the Dipl.-Ing. degree in mecha- Martin Vossiek (M’96–SM’05) was born in Dort-
tronics and the Dr.techn. degree from the Johannes mund, Germany, in 1964. He received the Dipl.-Ing.
Kepler University, Linz, Austria, in 2002 and 2007, degree and Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering
respectively. from Ruhr-University Bochum, Bochum, Germany,
He was with the Institute for Communications and in 1991 and 1996, respectively.
Information Engineering at the University of Linz, In 1996, he joined Siemens, Munich, Germany.
and joined the Linz Center of Competence in Mecha- From 2000 to 2003, he headed the Microwave Sys-
tronics (LCM) in 2002. His research interests include tems Group, Siemens Corporate Technology, where
systems design, signal generation, and digital signal he was responsible for product developments in the
processing for FMCW and FSCW radar and posi- field of commercial microwave sensor and commu-
tioning systems. He has authored or coauthored 20 publications. nication systems. In 2003, he joined the Institute
Dr. Pichler was the recipient of the 2004 European Microwave Association of Electrical Information Technology (IEI), Clausthal University, Clausthal-
(EuMA) Radar Prize. Zellerfeld, Germany, where he is currently a Professor. He has authored or
coauthored approximately 75 refereed papers. He is a member of the Editorial
Board of FREQUENZ. He holds approximately 70 patents. His research
concerns the areas of sensors, microwave techniques, and communications.
Stefan Schwarzer (S’08) was born in Werdohl, Dr. Vossiek is a member of the German IEEE Microwave Theory and Tech-
Germany, in 1981. He received the Dipl.-Ing. niques (MTT)/Antennas and Propagation (AP) Chapter Executive Board and
degree in mechanical engineering/mechatronics member of the IEEE Technical Committee MTT-16. He is also a member of
(with distinction) from Clausthal University of the two technical committees 7.3 “Microwave Technology” and 7.4 “Localiza-
Technology, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, in 2006. tion” of the Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies
He is currently working toward the Ph.D. degree at (VDE/ITG). He has been a member of Technical Program Committees for nu-
the Institute of Electrical Information Technology, merous international conferences. He has served on the review boards of tech-
Clausthal University. nical journals, including the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND
In 2005, he joined the Department of Wireless Sen- TECHNIQUES, the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON ULTRASONICS, FERROELECTRICS,
sors and RF Technology, Siemens Corporate Tech- AND FREQUENCY CONTROL, and the IEEE TRANSACTION ON CIRCUITS AND
nology, Munich, Germany, where he is working as SYSTEMS—PART II: ANALOG AND DIGITAL SIGNAL PROCESSING. He was the re-
a Research Assistant. He received the Ernst-von-Siemens doctoral scholarship. cipient of several international awards including the European Microwave Con-
His research interests are low-cost positioning systems for RFID and sensor net- ference (EuMC) European Microwave Award (1996), the EEEFCOM Innova-
work applications. tion Prize (2004), and The European Microwave Association (EuMA) Radar
Mr. Schwarzer is a student member of the ION and the German VDI. Prize (2004).
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