IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO.

11, NOVEMBER 2020 11183

Indoor Localization System Using Dual-Frequency

Bands and Interpolation Algorithm
Junhua Yang

Abstract—As an important part of the Internet of Things,

WiFi-based fingerprint indoor localization technology has been
extensively studied due to the widespread deployment of WLAN
in indoor environments. Nevertheless, there are two stubborn
issues in indoor localization using the fingerprint method, one is
the additional localization error caused by heterogeneous devices
and the other is the huge time consumed by upgrading the fin-
gerprint database. Here, we propose a dual-frequency difference
and cubic spline interpolation (DFD-CSI) localization system in
this article. First, according to the characteristics of commer-
cial WiFi router generally supports 2.4- and 5-GHz dual bands,
a fingerprint database is established using these two bands’ data
and their difference data. The existence of difference solves the
problem of device heterogeneity, while the existence of dual-
frequency data makes the positioning result more robust. In
addition, we also use cubic spline interpolation to upgrade the
rough fingerprint database in order to reduce the time of site
exploration on the premise of ensuring localization accuracy.
Extensive experiments have been conducted in a campus hall.
Results show that DFD-CSI is robust against altered devices and
Fig. 1. Schematic of the indoor localization process based on fingerprints.
access points (APs) compared with the traditional heterogeneous
devices algorithms and crowdsourcing update methods, achieving
a mean error of 3.7 m and 27.5% localization error reduction
with APs changed. technology [4], [33], including intelligent living [5], [6], next-
generation RFID tags, large-scale virtual reality, people and
Index Terms—Cubic spline interpolation (CSI), dual-frequency
difference (DFD), fingerprint database, heterogeneous devices, asset tracking [7], robots [8], [9], tracking patients in care
indoor localization. areas [10], etc. On the other hand, people are increasingly
using WiFi for network connections. Hence, lots of exist-
I. I NTRODUCTION ing indoor localization systems make use of the ready-made
S THE growth of mobile-intelligent terminals rapidly, WiFi access points (APs) to estimate devices equipped with
A location-based services (LBSs) have penetrated into
every aspect of daily life. The global navigation satellite
WiFi interface [13]. Among all the methods of WiFi indoor
localization, the fingerprint method is the most widely used.
system (GNSS) can bring a satisfactory positioning effect on This section provides a statement on the fingerprint-based
people in outdoor environments. Designing an efficient and indoor positioning algorithms, with a particular emphasis on
effective localization mechanism for LBS is very momen- the procedure of positioning implementation. Generally speak-
tous for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) scenarios, especially ing, fingerprinting positioning is divided into two phases [11],
in intelligent buildings. However, in indoor environments as shown in Fig. 1. The first step is performed offline and col-
where people tend to spend more time to stay, the local- lects information to obtain indication values of the received
ization action of GNSS cannot meet the requirements due signal strengths (RSSs) from WiFi APs in the located area.
to the multipath effect and signal fading [1]–[3]. In this It is also referred to as a training process based on M ref-
case, indoor localization has been extensively developed. As erence points (RPs), which are evenly distributed in a grid
a relevant field of application for IoT, a wide range of form throughout the area to be located, and then the RSS
indoor localization applications is considered a convenient measurements are performed by the mobile device (MD) for
each RP. At each of the specified RPs, the measured RSS
Manuscript received February 23, 2020; revised April 20, 2020; accepted values are used to construct a fingerprint for this RP. The
May 15, 2020. Date of publication May 22, 2020; date of current version FP data of all RPs are combined into a fingerprint database
November 12, 2020. This work was supported in part by the IoT Innovation
Team for Talent Promotion Plan of Shannxi Province under Grant 2019TD- (also known as radio map). The second step is performed
028. online, also known as the positioning phase. At this stage,
The author is with the School of Electronic Engineering, Xi’an the target device (TD) will be located, first collecting the RSS
University of Posts and Telecommunications, Xi’an 710121, China (e-mail:
yjh@xupt.edu.cn). value, establishing its own fingerprint, the so-called observa-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JIOT.2020.2996610 tion vector. Then, using some pattern recognition techniques,
2327-4662 
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11184
such as the k-nearest neighbor (KNN), probabilistic methods,
neural networks, support vector machine (SVM), and neural
networks [12], the positioning server compares the received
TD vector with the stored fingerprints. The fingerprints of the
TD match the RPs to get the closest coordinate or coordinate
combination, which is the last estimated position. All match-
ing algorithms are completed on the server, as shown in Fig. 1,
and finally, only the localization result is fed back to TD.
In the actual positioning application process, diversified
devices are implemented in offline and online signal measure-
ments, which will affect the performance of indoor localization
because of the heterogeneity [18], [19]. The state of the art
of the solution requires two or three APs to obtain rela-
tive values to get rid of heterogeneity [20], [21]. There is
a great drawback in this way, especially when the relative
distance between two APs changes, and such a situation is
very common in an indoor environment. Meanwhile, IEEE
802.11-based WiFi operates in the 2.4- and 5-GHz spectra.
Presently, almost all routers, that is, AP in indoor localization,
support these two frequency bands. In the meantime, WiFi-
based fingerprint indoor localization only uses one frequency
band [22], [23], which is a waste of information contained in
another frequency band.
On the other hand, RSS values collection and radio map
establishment are an indispensable stage in fingerprint-based
indoor localization. The localization accuracy is extremely
dependent on the density of radio map while building a high-
density fingerprint database is labor intensive, time consuming,
and overpriced. However, there is a fact that the RSS value
of the same AP in the fixed place is not stable, but is con-
stantly changing. The variation of RSS caused by the opening
and shutting doors, movement of people, temperature, humid-
ity, and electromagnetic interference in offices requires some
means to deal with it. When the fingerprint database is estab-
lished, we need to regularly maintain it ensuring the validity
and correctness of the radio data. To avoid updating finger-
print databases one by one at every RP, several crowdsourcing
approaches have been carried out in which general users con-
tributing new-fangled RSS can participate in the site survey
activity [14]–[17]. The automatic updating fingerprint using
crowdsourced data however causes other numerous issues,
such as power consumption, information redundancy, device
diversity, privacy protection, and participation willingness.
These disadvantages have to be faced with practical appli-
cation, and it is difficult to solve them all on the basis of
crowdsourcing. Therefore, another approach different from
crowdsourcing is needed to reoptimize the establishment of
indoor fingerprint databases.
In view of the above two issues, a dual-frequency differ-
ence (DFD) and cubic spline interpolation (CSI) fingerprinting
indoor localization system (DFD-CSI) is proposed in this arti-
cle. In the offline phase, DFD-CSI performs corresponding CSI
operations on the fingerprint data of each AP based on half,
one-quarter, or even fewer fingerprint data, and then constructs
the full fingerprint database using all of the interpolated data.
Taking advantage of the accomplished interpolation database,
the system not only reduces the amount of fingerprint collec-
tion but also ensures the localization accuracy. In the process,
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IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2020
rather than using a single-frequency value as fingerprint data,
the difference of two frequencies, 2.4 and 5 GHz, is used
to define a more robust signature and eliminates the device
heterogeneity between the offline phase and online phase.
On the whole, our contributions are summarized as follows.
1) At each RP, DFD-CSI not only collects the RSS value
at 2.4 GHz but also include 5 GHz, and includes the dif-
ference between the two as the final reference data. The
fingerprint of two frequency bands at each RP comes
from just one AP, not from different APs. The DFD
algorithm solves the issue of inconsistent fingerprints
caused by heterogeneous devices while maintaining the
stability of single-frequency fingerprint localization.
2) The DFD-CSI system uses the CSI method to interpo-
late the fingerprint database, which not only reduces the
labor force but also has a better effect on localization
accuracy and controllability compared with the crowd-
sourcing approach. Based on the measured fingerprint,
the CSI performs segmentation interpolation on the fin-
gerprint data of each AP, ensuring that the obtained
interpolation data border on the real data.
3) In a real indoor scene, we tested the proposed system.
Because the DFD-CSI system is extended from the tradi-
tional WiFi-RSS fingerprinting method, the conventional
algorithm can be applied to our system with only minor
modifications. Therefore, DFD-CSI can be deployed
in an actual scene where the indoor localization is
demanded.
Fig. 2 shows the framework of DFD-CSI, which is simi-
lar to the most traditional fingerprint-based indoor localization
system except that of the DFD and CSI. The remainder of
this article is organized as follows. In Section II, the algo-
rithm of two frequencies difference is formulated. The CSI
application algorithm in fingerprint database establishment is
presented in Section III and evaluation of DFD-CSI is in
Section IV. Finally, Section V concludes this article.
II. D UAL -F REQUENCY D IFFERENCE
Considering the hardware differences of MDs (e.g., smart-
phones, sweeping robot, tablets, and smart watch), manifold
MDs may get different measurement data, even for the exact
same fixed AP. To illustrate this, we conduct an experiment and
collect RSS samples using two mobile phones Mi Mix2s and
Meizu M2, and two laptops Thunderobot G150T and Hasee
G8-CT7NT, respectively. The measured value in 22 different
locations from one AP (TP-LINK TL-WDR5620) was col-
lected 30 times severally and the average was taken as the
RSS value to remove randomness. Fig. 3 shows the location
of 22 points and the typical linear shift following the signals
of the four devices.
It can be seen from Fig. 2 that no matter 2.4 or 5 GHz, RSS
values collected by different devices in each frequency band
are discrepant. Such inconsistencies would cause the degra-
dation of the positioning system performance. Consequently,
device heterogeneity has been identified as a cause for affect-
ing the localization accuracy in [24]–[27]. In these strategies,
one method is based on AP-sequence, it has nevertheless
YANG: INDOOR LOCALIZATION SYSTEM USING DUAL-FREQUENCY BANDS AND INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM 11185

Fig. 2. Architecture of the proposed DFD-CSI system.

relative position of the AP changes, one’s transmission power

changes, an incorrect localization judgment will occur. In view
of the case, we propose the DFD algorithm based on just one
AP. Before introducing the DFD algorithm, we first make some
explanations on the model of fingerprint indoor localization.

A. Fingerprint System Representation

Each fingerprint contains a list with the intensity values
of the detected APs. During the offline phase, RSS values
are measured at RPs for a certain period of time and stored
in the fingerprint database. In this article, the algorithm and
experiment are considered only horizontally in a floorboard
(a)
manner (2-D) since the vertical orientation localization is
rarely required in daily life. However, the scheme proposed
here is also applicable in the 3-D scene with minor modifi-
cations. In this way, a site survey is conducted on overall M
grid cells and RP is the geometric center of each cell, then
fingerprint data vectors have the form
F = [f1 , f2 , . . . , fM ]. (1)
The ith element fi in the fingerprint database is given by
  
fi = ri , fij |j ∈ Ni , i = 1, . . . , M (2)
where fij (in dBm) is the RSS value measured from AP APj .
The set of APs in range at the ith RP is the set Ni , that means
the number of APs which can be heard during the calibration
(b) time. The vector ri includes the 2-D coordinates of the ith RP
and ri = (xi , yi ).
Fig. 3. RSS values collected from four different devices. (a) Location of During the online phase, a new operation
22 points relative to the position of AP. (b) Different RSS values for four
different devices at the same 22 points. RSS value measurement of TD, i.e., RSSTD =
[RSSTD1 , RSS TD
2 , . . . , RSS TD
NTD ] is acquired and compared in
a large amount of calculation and low positioning accuracy. parallel with F. NTD means the number of APs which can be
Another method is to use the difference between RSS val- heard by TD and the estimated coordinate of TD is further
ues and it is based on two, however, or more APs. When the determined with ri . Furthermore, it is assumed that the total

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11186 IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2020

N APs that were heard in the offline phase are also heard
during the online phase. It should be noted that NTD may not
be the same as Ni , because we have N over all available APs
in the offline database that might not be heard from each
location and neither in the online phase. For the APs that
are in the database but not heard by the device, there is one
solution: set −100 dBm that is equal to the sensitivity of the
device.

B. Dual-Frequency From One AP

In the last 20 years, a number of amendments, and specifi-
cally 802.11a/b/g/n/ac which we restrict to the ones focusing
on the Industrial Scientific Medical (ISM) 2.4- and 5-GHz
bands, have been proposed to improve the nominal data rate.
WiFi-based series of IEEE 802.11 protocol standards has come
to the sixth generation on the basis of IEEE 802.11 ax and
the nominal data rates are increased up to 9.6 Gb/s, which is
just 37% higher than that of 802.11ac [29]. Therefore, with the
development of the protocol, indoor positioning based on WiFi
will also receive more and more attention. In this development
process, we should strengthen the utilization of 2.4- and 5-GHz
dual-frequency signals, which is also the core concept of the
DFD algorithm proposed in this article. For the same device,
the RSS values of 2.4 and 5 GHz from the same AP in the
same area are different as shown in Fig. 4. It can be seen from
the figure that there is a difference in the RSS value of the two
frequency bands at the same location. As the distance from the
signal transmission point changes, the signals in the 2.4- and
5-GHz bands show different signal strength distributions.
First, considering the relationship between the distance of
transceiver and RSS, we model the received signal power using
Fig. 4. Heatmap of 2.4 and 5 GHz from one AP in an area of
a log-distance path-loss (LDPL) model [30], which has the 30.6 m × 16.8 m. (a) RSS of 2.4 GHz, the maximum value is −33 dBm
logarithmic domain formula and the minimum value is −63 dBm. (b) RSS of 5 GHz, the maximum value
  is −31 dBm and the minimum value is −81 dBm.
d
P(d) = P(d0 ) − 10β lg + Xd (3)
d0
These three parameters are inconsistent for different devices,
where P(d) (in dBm) is the RSS value at an arbitrary dis-
which can cause differences in RSS values even when mea-
tance d (in meters) from the transmitter, P(d0 ) (in dBm) is
sured at the same distance. Take (4) into (3), and consider 2.4
the reference power at distance d0 (normally, d0 = 1 m) from
and 5 GHz, respectively
the transmitter, β is the path-loss exponent, and Xd (in dB) 
are the log-normal shadowing terms modeled as independent PAP GAP GMD c2
and identically distributed (i.i.d.) zero-mean Gaussian random P2.4 (d)|dBm = 10 lg
16π 2 d02 L2.4 f2.4
2
variables with standard deviation σd , i.e., Xd ∼ N (0, σd ).  
d
Equation (3) is a relative RSS value calculation expression − 10β2.4 lg + X2.4 (5)
and free space propagation model is needed for getting the d0
relationship of the absolute RSS value and distance [31] and
   
PAP GAP GMD c2 PAP GAP GMD c2 d
P(d0 ) = 10 lg (4) P5 (d)|dBm = 10 lg − 10β5 lg + X5
16π 2 d02 Lf 2 16π 2 d02 L5 f52 d0
(6)
where PAP is the transmitted power from AP, GAP is the
antenna gain of AP, GMD is the MD’s antenna gain, c is the where subscript 2.4 is meaning of 2.4 GHz and subscript
propagation speed of electromagnetic waves, generally con- 5 stands for 5 GHz. For the same AP and the same MD,
sidered to be the speed of light, which is 3 × 108 m/s, d0 is subtract (6) from (5), we have
the reference distance between the transmitter and receiver, f
  
P2.4

L5 f52 d
is the transmitted carrier’s frequency in WiFi, and L is the = 10 lg − 10 lg (β2.4 − β5 )
system loss factor. The effects of heterogeneous devices are P5
dB 2
L2.4 f2.4 d0
mainly concentrated on three parameters PAP , GAP , and GMD . + (X2.4 − X5 ). (7)

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YANG: INDOOR LOCALIZATION SYSTEM USING DUAL-FREQUENCY BANDS AND INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM 11187

From (7), it can be observed that the DFD algorithm can

effectively solve the heterogeneity of the device because there
are no factors for the transmitting power PAP , transmitting
gain GAP , and the antenna gain of the receiving device GMD .
Compared with other fingerprint data algorithms based on dif-
ference, this difference result comes from the same AP, and
the value will be more stable. The movement or obscuration
of other APs will not affect the DFD data of the APs used.
The general fingerprinting data algorithm based on differ-
ence is to calculate the difference value according to two
different APs, and the selection of these two APs will consume
more computer memory and calculation time than conven-
tional methods. Generally speaking, the number of APs that
can be sensed by TD is NMD , so when entering fingerprint data,
a calculation selection of CN2 MD is required [26]. In the online Fig. 5. Schematic of the three fingerprint data selection methods during the
localization and matching phase.
localization phase, such calculations also require CN2 TD times,
which will affect the timeliness of positioning. However, the
DFD algorithm is a difference operation for the same AP, so
there is no calculation and squander time for selecting the AP,
which avoids the above consumption.
It can be seen from (7) that the originally expressed dis-
tance information becomes a distance ratio, and this process
will lose some position resolution information. Therefore, the
fingerprinting database established by the proposed algorithm
still retains two frequencies of information, together with the
result of DFD, forming upgrade form fi of (1)
⎛   ⎞
ri , DFDij |j ∈ Ni 
fi = ⎝ RSS(2.4,ij) |j ∈ Ni ⎠, i = 1, . . . , M. (8)
RSS(5,ij) |j ∈ Ni
In the online phase, the real-time data of TD are matched Fig. 6. Schematic and coordinate representation of interpolation based on
with three kinds of fingerprint information, and the obtained the existing RPs.
RPs are weighted for selecting KNN to complete the position
estimation.
However, because RSS and DFD values in (8) repre- initial fingerprint database is coarse grained or when there is
sent different physical meanings and the existing algorithms a distance gap between the crowdsourcing lines.
perform a principal component analysis on this situation. To illustrate the process of the CSI interpolation algorithm,
Because principal component analysis involves data mining we assume that RSS value and distance from one AP are
and data dimensionality reduction, such operations seriously shown in Fig. 5 in a 2-D plane. Even though this is suitable for
increase the burden on the device and the cost of the opera- a somewhat restricted situation, the whole certification process
tion. In view of this, we adopt the method of first matching will contribute a mathematical observation. The interpolation
the three sets of data separately, and then select the optimal consequence is to find a contour described by f = h(l) in the
neighboring RPs to complete the position estimation. The fin- f -l plane in Fig. 6, where f is the RSS value and l is the dis-
gerprint database will be kept as original as possible with this tance between AP and MD. It is difficult to obtain an explicit
method, and no additional algorithm will be added to analyze expression of f because there are numerous factors that affect
it. To illustrate the proposed optimization algorithm, we set the attenuation of the RSS value in the indoor environment. In
the k value in the KNN algorithm to 5 for demonstration, as order to achieve this, the method adopted is to choose a suit-
shown in Fig. 5. able potential function and calculate its minimum value. In
this article, the potential function is expressed as
III. C UBIC S PLINE I NTERPOLATION V(l, f ) = g(f − h(l); l) (9)
Interpolation is a method of solving the curve passing
through these known knots when some partial data knots where g(x; l) ≥ g(0; l) ∀x. Expression h(l) is defined by the
are known and then predicting the value of the function of range of [0, D], where D is the distance between AP and MD
the unknown position based on the obtained curve. Since the when RSS value −100 dBm.
data in the fingerprint database cannot completely cover the It is extremely burdensome to get the exact expression of
area to be located, interpolation is a necessary approach to h(l), hence we can exploit a snake curve s(l) to approximate it
enrich the fingerprint data. Interpolation is required when the as much as possible. To achieve this intention, a mathematical

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11188
expression is given by
  D  d 2 s(l) 2
s∗ (l) = arg min V(k, s(k)) + α
s 0 dl2
0≤k≤L
where k is a natural number and k ∈ [0, D], and the char-
acteristics of which shows that it is a cost function, α is the
regularization factor that controls the smoothness of the solu-
tion curve. As can be seen from (10), it consists of two distinct
sections, the argument term and integral term. The meaning
of the argument term is to make the solution of the equation
sufficiently close to the minimum value of the potential func-
tion V(l, f ). It is not continuous in the process of fingerprint
database interpolation while we interpolate each RSS value at
some discrete distances l = k. The second term is an integral
expression to implement a smoothness constraint which makes
the final curve solution more inclined to a smooth curve with
a low average curvature. As a result, the transition between RP
and interpolation point will be more stable and unobtrusive.
It is worth noting that although the RP and RSS values are
discrete, the final solution s(l) of (10) is a continuous snake
within the range of [0, D]. It has been proven in previous
studies that s(l) is a cubic spline which has knot points at
integers [32].
In order to achieve the snake expansion numerically, we
need to construct the following spline polynomial between two
adjacent interpolation points, RPi and RPi+1 :
s∗i (l) = ai (l − ki )3 + bi (l − ki )2 + ci (l − ki )2 + di
where ai , bi , ci , and di are the cubic spline coefficients which
is our new smoothness parameter instead of α.
Assuming a total of m RPs in one direction can hear the
signal of an AP, then we consider the simplified calculation
problem between two RPs (knot points)
s∗i (li ) = fi
s∗ (li+1 ) = fi+1
 ∗i   
si (li+1 ) = s∗i+1 (li+1 )
∗    is an irregular pattern with a longest length of 86.4 m and
si (li+1 ) = s∗i+1 (li+1 )
where (12) and (13) are based on the equality of data at the
knot points, and (14) and (15) are based on the continuity of
differential. Through the above formula, we can calculate the
values of the four parameters ai , bi , ci , and di , thereby esti-
mating the expression of s∗i (l) as shown in Fig. 7. According
to Algorithm 1, all snake splines can be calculated using knot
points and any interpolated RSS values can be calculated at
any distance in the interval [0, D]. According to the expression
in (8), three types of fingerprints are interpolated, respectively,
to complete the upgrade of the whole fingerprint database.
The interpolation algorithm described above is executed by
the maintainer of the indoor localization system. Compared
with the localization system using crowdsourced data, this
method will only transmit the user’s effective localization
information during the execution process and does not need
to consume too much power for uploading crowdsourced
information. The consequence of this processing is that the
system will not obtain the user’s real-time localization without
permission, thereby protecting the user’s privacy.
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IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2020
dl (10)
Fig. 7. Schematic of spline representation by the segment between knot
points.
Algorithm 1 Proposed CSI Model
Input: Fingerprint data F Mi obtained from coarse-grained measurement,
including 2.4GHz, 5GHz and their difference data (as shown in Eq.
8)
Output: Fingerprint database F Mi−CSI after interpolation
1 Obtain the initial fingerprint database F Mi
2 for i = {1, 2, . . . , N − 1} do
3 for f i and f i+1 are two adjacent fingerprint data in F Mi do
4 Calculate the cubic spline expression s(l) between f i and f i+1
according to Eq. 11-15
5 Interpolate fingerprint data f i−CSI according to s(l)
6 end for
7 end for     
8 return F Mi−CSI = F Mi f 1−CSI · · · f i−CSI · · · f (N−1)−CSI
(11)
IV. E XPERIMENT R ESULTS AND A NALYSIS
A. Testbed Setup
Our experimental site is a portion of the first floor in the
Qizhen Building located in the Northwestern Polytechnical
University (NWPU). It is a comprehensive office building,
(12) which includes a lobby, corridor, report room, office, etc. The
(13) different rooms are separated by concrete walls and the entire
(14) building structure is relatively complicated. The entire site
(15)
a total area of over 4000 m2 . Fig. 8 illustrates the layout of
the testbed, in which nine H3C dual-frequency WAP722 WiFi
routers were installed as APs in this field test. All APs are uni-
formly installed on the ceiling in advance, and they have the
same height to the floor. We used four types of equipment to
collect and test RSS values in the experimental environment,
and they included Mi Mix2s (phone), Meizu M2 (phone),
Thunderobot G150T (laptop), and Hasee G8-CT7NT (laptop).
The collecting program ran on all equipment in order to collect
RSS fingerprints from multiple APs.
By leveraging the corresponding program, the MD sends
the collected MAC address of each AP and its corresponding
RSS value to the server, and multiple RP points are collected
to form a fingerprint database on the central server side. In the
proposed algorithm, MDs are only responsible for collecting
fingerprint data and uploading the data to the server, the DFD-
CSI calculation is performed at the server, and finally, the
server feeds back the localization result to the MD.
There are 290 RPs throughout the test site as shown in
Fig. 8, and the distance between each two is 3 m. On each
YANG: INDOOR LOCALIZATION SYSTEM USING DUAL-FREQUENCY BANDS AND INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM
(a)
(b)
Fig. 8. Experimental scene: (a) part of the first floor plane of the Qizhen
Building, where the markers indicate RPs, APs, and TPs and (b) part of the
field scene of the experimental site and the AP used.
PR, we are holding the MD to collect RSS values ten times
in each direction for testing the DFD algorithm. There are
four directions, east, south, west, and north, respectively, there-
xi − xi
. (16)
fore 40 times sampling in total for each RP. Then, the 40 RSS
values are averaged and stored as fingerprint data. In order
to ensure the applicability and generality of fingerprint data,
we collected all fingerprint data over three working days. The
establishment of the fingerprint database is relatively rough
when testing the CSI algorithm, and we only collect RSS
data once at each RP. Different fingerprint databases were gen-
erated throughout the whole experiment and Table I lists them
in order to distinguish.
B. Experimental Results of DFD
In the experimental site, 50 test points (TPs) are randomly
selected to measure the localization accuracy of DFD. We
carried out both offline and online tests for heterogeneous
devices. In every experiment, 50 TPs are picked out and
stationed different devices at these locations, while ensuring
that 40 samples are collected as RPs in the offline phase.
We used four types of devices to establish the fingerprint
database separately as mentioned earlier. Similarly, we also
used the same devices to perform the localization test sepa-
rately in the experimental stage. That is to say, four fingerprint
databases are established and then each device is used to
perform localization accuracy experiments at the 50 TPs.
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11189
TABLE I
M AJOR F INGERPRINT DATABASE S YMBOLS
The experiments compared DFD with three approaches,
including traditional RSS, SSD [20], and AP-Sequence [27]
methods. We have chosen the well-known matching algorithms
in the localization phase, that is, KNN, in order to test our
method. Our main intention is to illustrate the versatility of
the DFD algorithm when dealing with heterogeneous devices
and it is irrespective of which matching algorithm is used.
We also have made different optimization choices for the K
value based on experience in different methods. The following
performance metrics is used to evaluate the localization error
of each method. In (16), xi is the true position of target and xi
is the estimated location. Every device is positioned P times
at each TP and the mean localization error of target is defined
as
1
P
le =
P
i=1
Before proving that the DFD algorithm is suitable for het-
erogeneous devices, we first tested the robustness of DFD
using homogeneous devices. Fig. 9 displays the cumulative
distribution function (CDF) of the localization error by four
approaches: 1) RSS; 2) SSD; 3) AP-sequence; and 4) DFD
using homogeneous. Here, homogeneous refers to the mea-
surement of TP data using four devices, Mi Mix2s, Meizu
M2, Thunderobot G150T, and Hasee G8-CT7NT, while fin-
gerprinting data are obtained also using the same device. It
can be seen from Fig. 9 that the DFD algorithm is very
similar in terms of robustness, such as RSS, SSD, and AP-
sequence algorithms, and is superior to these three algorithms
in localization accuracy. DFD achieved a 4-m accuracy of
70.5% on average of these four devices, while RSS, SSD,
and AP-sequence were 68.5%, 67.5%, and 67%, respectively.
The positioning effectiveness of SSD and AP-sequence is
slightly below that of RSS using homogeneous devices. This
conclusion shows that although the algorithm of RSS differ-
ence can achieve better positioning results in heterogeneous
devices, when using homogeneous devices, these algorithms
lose the original information of RSS, resulting in a decrease
in positioning accuracy. The distinction of the proposed DFD
algorithm is that it can obtain better positioning results in the
11190
Fig. 9. Cumulative localization error distribution of homogeneous devices: (a) Mi Mix2s; (b) Meizu M2; (c) Thunderobot G150T; and (d) Hasee G8-CT7NT.
TABLE II
C ROSS E XPERIMENT S ETTING IN THE H ETEROGENEOUS S CENARIO
case of homogeneous devices due to the existing factors of
RSS(2.4,ij) and RSS(5,ij) in (8).
In the next experiment, we analyze the situation of heteroge-
neous devices. There are totally four fingerprinting databases
and four devices in our experimental setting. In order to
deal with heterogeneous devices, we use different databases
and devices to verify the performance status of RSS, SSD,
AP-sequence, and DFD based on cross-testing methods. The
specific cross correspondences of database and device are
shown in Table II, for instance, Hasee G8-CT7NT is the
TD while using the fingerprinting database established by Mi
Mix2s.
The average localization error of the four heterogeneous
devices using the DFD algorithm is 3.7 m. As can be seen
from Fig. 10, the positioning accuracy of different algorithms
when facing heterogeneous devices is quite obvious. Similarly,
based on the localization error of 4 m, DFD achieved it
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IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2020
at 65% on average of these four heterogeneous conditions,
while RSS, SSD, and AP-sequence were 35%, 52%, and
55.5%, respectively. It can be seen from the above analysis
that the positioning accuracy of the DFD algorithm is sig-
nificantly better than the other three algorithms when using
heterogeneous devices. More importantly, Fig. 10 indicates
that although different kinds of devices may generate different
localization results, the proposed DFD algorithm outperforms
preceding robust positioning methods, whether the device is
heterogeneous or not.
The mixed use of heterogeneous devices will not affect the
accuracy of indoor localization following the DFD algorithm.
To demonstrate this advantage, we conducted experiments with
the heterogeneous devices in Table II, there are four cases
in the detection of heterogeneous devices here. It is enough,
however, to illustrate the convenience that the DFD algo-
rithm brings to the localization with various and numerous
heterogeneous devices at the same time in real life.
C. Efficiency Comparison Between CSI and Crowdsourcing
In order to directly verify the effectiveness of the CSI algo-
rithm itself, we first set up the fingerprint database according
to the RPs shown in Fig. 8. Similar to the above experiment,
YANG: INDOOR LOCALIZATION SYSTEM USING DUAL-FREQUENCY BANDS AND INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM 11191

Fig. 10. Cumulative localization error distribution of heterogeneous devices: (a) Mi Mix2s; (b) Meizu M2; (c) Thunderobot G150T; and (d) Hasee G8-CT7NT.

we used two heterogeneous (Mi Mix2s and Meizu M2) devices
to collect fingerprint data of 290 RPs. After 50 days, on the
basis of retaining the initial fingerprint databases FMi and
FMeizu , we performed CSI algorithm processing on the two
fingerprint databases and upgraded to obtain the other two
corresponding fingerprint databases FMi−CSI and FMeizu−CSI .
In the online phase, we took Mi Mix2s as TD and used the
DFD algorithm to test localization errors of the four finger-
print databases, respectively. The whole 50 TPs are divided
into two groups, TP1–TP25 as a group and TP26–TP50 as
another, then performed localization accuracy tests on the two
groups of TPs.
It can be seen from Fig. 11(a) that the mean localization
errors calibrated by FMi are larger than FMi−CSI , of which
TP1–TP25 are tested using the initial fingerprint database FMi ,
and TP26–TP50 are tested using the interpolated fingerprint
database FMi−CSI . The mean positioning error has dropped
from 4.8 to 3.6 m after interpolation, which means that the
positioning accuracy has increased by 25%. Fig. 11(a) shows
the localization error results of homogeneous devices, while
in the display results of heterogeneous devices, Fig. 11(b),
CSI plays the same role in optimizing results. The mean
localization errors are 5.1 m using FMeizu and 3.7 m using
FMeizu−CSI , respectively, with a 27.5% improvement in posi-
tioning accuracy. From the whole point of view, whether it
is heterogeneous or homogeneous devices, our proposed CSI
algorithm has shown obvious results in improving position-
ing accuracy. Although the effect of localization has been
reduced due to changes in the fingerprint database after
50 days, the improvement consequence is still obvious after
the corresponding interpolation is performed.
In a struggle to reduce the fingerprinting calibration efforts,
several research have been implemented on crowdsourcing
approaches in which ordinary users can participate in the fin-
gerprint collection activity. Ordinary users, people walking
indoors and needing location information, collect RSS data on
the path they move forward and contribute the fingerprint to
the database. The following experiment is to verify and com-
pare the localization performance of our proposed CSI method
and crowdsourcing method. Indoor experiments are conducted
on the ground floor of the Qizhen building at NWPU as
described above.
We set up the fingerprint database according to the RPs
shown in Fig. 8. The initial fingerprint database has 290 RPs,
the fingerprint data collection time at each RP is however
reduced to 1 s for comparison, and the mobile phone only

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11192
Fig. 11. Localization error of Mi Mix2s at 50 TPs. (a) Using database FMi
from TP1 to TP25 and using FMi−CSI from TP26 to TP50. (b) Using database
FMeizu from TP1 to TP25 and using FMeizu−CSI from TP26 to TP50.
faces one direction. Therefore, the effective time for establish-
ing the initial fingerprint database F Mi in this way is 290 s.
Another new fingerprint database F Mi was established after
50 days following the same method. Then, we upgraded the
fingerprint database F Mi using a crowdsourcing method. In the
course of every round, an experimental person with a smart-
phone (i.e., Mi Mix2s) held in front of his body walked on
the prescribed route crossing the indoor site to produce crowd-
sourcing samples, and seven crowdsourcing trajectories (CTs)
he went through that cover the experimental space to the great-
est extent as shown in Fig. 12. The walking speed of the
experimenter is 1 m/s and the frequency of collecting RSS
values is also 1 Hz. The entire length of the seven trajectory
routes is 336 m, thus 336 crowdsourcing points are generated
totally in the process. In order to ensure the effectiveness of
the CTs, the seven paths basically cover the entire experimen-
tal site, which is difficult to achieve in the real crowdsourcing
process. It is noticeable that more than 50 unambiguous APs
were detected in the data acquisition process, and most of them
only contribute weak RSS values randomly, hence, nine APs
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IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2020
Fig. 12. Experimental scene with seven CTs.
Fig. 13. Performance comparison between different amount CTs and
F Mi−CSI localization systems with altered APs.
fixed to the ceiling and 12 other steady APs with strongest
RSS values were selected for crowdsourcing.
In order to contrast positioning performance, we upgrade
two fingerprint databases F Mi and F Mi based on the crowd-
sourcing signal and CSI algorithm, respectively. The whole
seven trajectories are accumulated in order to update F Mi
while using the crowdsourcing signal to complete finger-
print database updating, therefore, the entire process pro-
duced seven updated databases F Mi−CT1 , F Mi−CT2 , F Mi−CT3 ,
F Mi−CT4 , F Mi−CT5 , F Mi−CT6 , and F Mi−CT7 . On the other hand,
F Mi−CSI is the interpolated fingerprint database that is obtained
by performing the CSI algorithm on F Mi . Without considering
the additional time consumption, the effective time to establish
F Mi is 290 s and it takes 336 s to establish F Mi−CT7 . In the
online phase, the crowdsourcing-based positioning algorithm
adopts LAAFU [28], and the positioning of the interpolation
database is completed using our proposed DFD.
There were nine APs fixed on the ceiling which were rel-
atively stable during the test, while the remaining 12 APs
changed in different degrees. The mean localization error of
50 TPs versus the number of altered APs are shown in Fig. 13,
YANG: INDOOR LOCALIZATION SYSTEM USING DUAL-FREQUENCY BANDS AND INTERPOLATION ALGORITHM
where the TD is the homogeneous device Mi Mix2s. Due
to the rough process of establishing the fingerprint database
in this experiment (1 sample instead of 40 samples at each
RP), the whole positioning accuracy is decreased compared
with the previous experiment. Since the result of F Mi−CSI is
obtained by interpolation on the latest fingerprint database F Mi ,
it is not affected by altered APs, and the localization accuracy
error is always maintained at 4.3 m. Its localization result is
worse than LAAFU just when there is no altered AP or only
one. However, when there is more than one altered AP in the
fingerprint database, the LAAFU method cumulatively accu-
mulating seven CTs in turn has a greater localization error
than CSI, and the error tends to become larger as the num-
ber of altered APs increasing. Obviously, although the time
spent on the seven CTs is basically the same as the time to
set up a coarse-grained fingerprint database F Mi , the position-
ing effect is not as effective as using F Mi−CSI . When there are
eight variable APs, the minimum mean localization error of
the 50 TPs obtained by the crowdsourcing method is 5.5 m,
which is 28% larger than the 4.3 m of the CSI algorithm.
V. C ONCLUSION
In this article, we proposed the indoor localization system
DFD-CSI to solve the device heterogeneity and fingerprint
database updating issues. In view of the actuality that commer-
cial routers generally have dual bands routing functions in the
2.4- and 5-GHz bands, we first use the DFD algorithm to col-
lect fingerprint data and establish a dual-frequency database.
It achieved a 4-m accuracy of 70.5% on average of four het-
erogeneous devices using different fingerprint databases, while
the other three methods, RSS, SSD, and AP-sequence, were
68.5%, 67.5%, and 67%, respectively. In addition, under the
status of almost equal time consumption, the localization effect
obtained by using the coarse fingerprint database with the
CSI algorithm updating mode is significantly better than the
crowdsourcing with the LAAFU updating mode. The average
localization error of 50 TPs is always 4.3 m regardless of the
APs with or without changes when the CSI algorithm is used.
Our future work will mainly focus on using WiFi-6.0 for
high-speed indoor localization and continue to strengthen the
usability of dual-frequency bands relationships. We will ana-
lyze the component of fingerprint data composed of 2.4 and
5 GHz, and their differences, to select an appropriate finger-
print when it is in the online phase. Meanwhile, more effective
interpolation algorithms will be explored in a large indoor
environment conducted to enhance the fingerprint database
updating.
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IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL, VOL. 7, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 2020
Junhua Yang received the B.Eng. degree in elec-
tronic communication engineering from Sichuan
Normal University, Chengdu, China, in 2008, the
M.Eng. degree in signal and information process-
ing engineering from the Chengdu University of
Information Technology, Chengdu, in 2011, and
the Ph.D. degree in information and communica-
tion engineering from Northwestern Polytechnical
University, Xi’an, China, in 2019.
He is currently a Lecturer with the School of
Electronic Engineering, Xi’an University of Posts
and Telecommunications, Xi’an. His current research interests include indoor
localization, wireless communication, and machine learning.