Localization and tracking system using Wi-Fi signal strength with

wireless sensors network

Douae ZBAKH 1Abdelouahid LYHYAOUI1 Mariam TANANA1
1
AbdelmalekEssaâdi University, National School of Applied Sciences, LTI. Laboratory, BP 1818,
Tangier, Morocco
[email protected]

Abstract.Indoor location and tracking systems based on Wi-Fi signals are both gainful and precise, they
are able to attain certain positioning level using existing Wi-Fi infrastructure environment.
The implementation within a wireless sensors network proffer an updating card that estimate true values of
RSSI on the fingerprints points, and combine algorithms localization that offer accurate positions
estimations.
In this paper a localization algorithm will be described it offers a good accuracy using a particular filter
which tracks multiple points to characterize a trajectory. Finally an evaluation of methods performance is
desirable to verify that the system is more accurate and efficient on tracking.
Keywords: Wireless sensor network, Localization algorithm, Indoor location, access point, signal
strength, location tracking

1 Introduction

Indoor localization [1] is one of the most important problems in intelligent services. They are
considered much more difficult than outdoor localization problems because GPS signal is not available
within building or nearby huge structure.
The technologies of indoor location tracking are used in public building [2] like museums, transit
stations or hospitals. In contrast, location errors may result in undesirable deliveries of wrong information
to the wrong people at wrong place.
Location tracking and positioning systems can be classified by: Measurement attribute [3],
localization Algorithms [4] and communication protocol. The classifications by the measurement
techniques are employed to determine mobile device location (localization). Location tracking approach
differs in terms of the specific technique used to precisely detect and measure the position of the mobile
device in the target environment under observation. The Real Time Location Systems (RTLS) as a type
of measurement attribute includes many basic systems able to determine positions using the following
parameters:
• Cell of origin (nearest cell)
• Distance (lateration)
• Angle (angulations)
• Location patterning (pattern recognition)
RTLS solution typically includes location sensors that are attached to various assets, using a unique
ID. The system can locate the tags and report real time information about its positioning within the
facility estimation, based RTLS solution enables tracking unit. This location services are preferment in
finding and tracking assets (objects) and people; they deliver information for users mainly on client
software.
Manufacturers of RTLS systems have combined the functionality of both systems and incorporated
both technologies GPS and Wi-Fi in a device to provide the location data.
System as such utilizes the availability of GPS for outdoor location and switch to Wi-Fi when
confronting obstacles.
Wi-Fi [6] based system potentially works indoor. For instance, Radar is an indoor location system
based on Wi-Fi signal [7], [8]. It uses tow methods to calculate locations from signal information. The

Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
first is to use a signal propagation model, which quantifies how wireless signal fluctuates with distance.
Thesecond it estimates the distance from multiple access point from signal strengths. In this regard, there
are two types of Wi-Fi based positioning technologies: time and space attributes [9] of received signal
(TSARS) - based technology and received signal strength (RSS) basedpositioning technology. We need
to update our map every in order to use a sensor network to get the value of the RSSI from each grid
point; that is to say, the RSSI represents the best localization entity and a relied parameter.
Wi-Fi based location systems operate via two phases. First one is called the offline training phase,
which makes a human operator able to perform a survey on those sites with signal strength indicators
(RSSI), using different access points (APs) attributed to the same fixed environment sampled point.
These RSSI measurements are registered in radio card, which exposes APs RSSI values of different
sampled points. The second one is the online estimation. It is charged of target’s location which
calculated in real time by corresponding sampled points on radio card with the closest RSSI values of the
target.

In this paper, the location and the tracking use the Wi-Fi strength signal. It is implemented in a
wireless sensors network to estimate the positions using the fingerprinting location method. The Wi-Fi
locations use the LF and sensors in two aspects: the training one, in charge of collecting different RSS
values due to sensors and their databases. The second aspect is interested in position estimation using
KNN Algorithm [10]. Then we employed the particular filter to track multiple points and characterize a
trajectory. This solution shows many benefits as the system resulted with 3 meter of location precision
adapted with the indoor space.
This paper is organized as follows, in section 2 we describes the design of the proposed Indoor
location system based on wireless sensors networks, next presents location mythology was described. In
section 4, the improvement of trajectory accuracy is due to a particular filter, section 5 gives a
performance evaluation of location estimation. Finally the last section presents discussion of future
works.

2 Localization approach design

The experiment was performed in the hall of the National School of Applied Sciences in Tangier; the
dimension is approximately 25 x 15 m².
We use 6 AP operating on the radio channel of IEEE 802,11b at 2, 54 GHz with 3 overlapping channel.
Also 300 distributed sensors as shown in Figure1.
The received signal strength is in the range of -40dBm and -90dBm, and the highly RSS value is
-25dBm approximately at 1m (APs distance).
Access points are located in the following positions (3; 3), (17; 3), (3; 13), (17; 13), (14; 10), (8; 6).
The location and the tracking system use the Wi-Fi strength signal. It is implement the wireless
sensors network to estimate the positions using the fingerprinting location method.
The Wi-Fi locations algorithm use tree aspects: the training one, in charge of collecting different RSS
values due to sensors and their databases. The second aspect is interested in position estimation using
KNN Algorithm ,finaly In order to improve the accuracy the Particular Filter is implemented

Fig.1. A figure caption is always placed below the illustration. Short captions are centered, while long ones are
justified. The macro button chooses the correct format automatically.

Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
 Fig.2. The Mesh description

2.1 Localization algorithm

This section describes the algorithm used in the proposed approach: signal propagation theorem, K-
nearest neighbor and a probabilistic estimation.
K-nearest neighbor is applied to specify the sensors positions after collecting the RSSi vector F =
[F1….FN] values.
With N as the number of the deployed AP in the area and Pi as an independent RSSI from a data AP.
In order to find the nearest neighbor we use KNN algorithm, which is a set of strength signal, then
we also use the weighted average of geometric coordinate relative to the K nearest sensors.

𝑘
1 𝑃𝑖 . (𝑥𝑖 , 𝑦𝑖 )
.∑ 𝑘
𝑘 ∑𝑖=1 𝑃𝑖
𝑖=1

With Pi as the mean the Fi Vector:

𝑁
1
𝑃𝑖 = ∑ 𝐹𝑖
𝑁
𝑖

2.2 Signal propagation theorem

Wi-Fi RSS is retrieved from all grid points, the radio frequency signal obeys propagation based
model.

Where rk(dk) is the initial RSS at the reference distance of d 0 of 1m.

The variable α gives the exponent path loss, in the indoor α can be between 1 and 6 wall Loss is the
sum of losses introduced by each wall on the line segment at the Euclidian distance d j,k.

Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
3 Probabilistic estimation

The Wi-Fi RSS research support taking on Gaussian distribution when the size samples RSS is large.
Supposing the case, the variance of Wi-Fi RSS distribution are σs& µs and the probability of getting the
exact location is donate.

With µk, σkare the distribution variance using all neighbors.

Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
4 Tracking using a particular filter

In order to improve the accuracy the Particular Filter is implemented, so that we can estimate the
state of a discrete time tracking process monitored by no linear stochastic difference equation. Then the
covariance matrix is used to estimate system evolution that offers more precision than the regular
tracking, which provides only the estimated location correction.

5 Performance evaluation

This part of the work is interested in system performance, and starts by examination of errors
through the mesh, then the effect of varying the number of neighbors, number of access points and also
the number of sensors used, finally we evaluate the estimation of particular filter trajectory.

5.1 Error evaluation and the influence of varying several parameters

As shown in the figure above (figure 2), the mesh is fully swept, where the error is calculated in
meters from sensors. This figure shows also a maximal error approximately about 2.7 m and average
error approximately about 1m. So we notice that errors increase in minimum power density positions,
and the received signal from various access points is a source of several errors.

Fig.2. MAX-ERROR in the basic Mesh

In the study shown in Figure 3, we varied the size of the mesh, also increased the distance
between nodes up to 4.5m. We notice that the more the mesh size increases, the more the error
increases. And the average error attains 1m while the distance between nodes is 1m.

Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
 Fig.3. Influence of varying the distance between sensors

Figure 4 indicates the effect of variation neighbor numbers and shows that the
location becomes more accurate. Referring to the figure, the error is minimized to 0.3m using 8
neighbors.

Fig.4. Influence of varying the number of neighbor.

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M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
5.2 Results for adding the location tracking Filter

The nearest neighbor algorithm [10] uses a Map for keeping track of the status of the users in a
particular location. There is a calibration process in which the tracks of all users are kept so that the
location is achieved easily.

The K-Nearest Neighbor (K-NN) algorithm is used to estimate the mobile sensor location. Once the
location is figured, the Particular filter is attributed to improve the performance. Those experiments
examine the accurate trajectory when a user walks around a room with a mobile sensor.

Fig.5. Estimation of trajectory with a Particular filter

The figure below (Figure5) offers the trajectory estimation using a particular filter algorithm
combined with position already described. We observe that error decreases along the trajectory to an
average of 1m.

6 Conclusion and future work.

In this paper, different techniques stated for location based tracking and also concentrating on a mass
usage of wireless Wi-Fi signal for location tracing. Wi-Fi signals allowing an immense field of services
to track the user’s location. In this scenario the distance between sensors is a major issue.

We proposed and describe a localization algorithm in this research paper that offers a good accuracy
and stability using a particular filter. Many improvements could be made such as reducing the number
of sensors using clustering; also using other metrics give more precision than Euclidian distance.

Some perspectives of wireless indoor positioning systems are as follows:

(1) The use of KALMAN filters to reduce error location.

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M. Ezziyanni (Ed.): AI2SD 2018, AISC 915, pp. 821-829, 2019
 (2) Implementation of this methods and also construction of 3D approach.

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