WiFi emission-based vs passive radar localization of human targets

In this paper two approaches are considered for human targets localization based on the WiFi signals: the device emission-based localization and the passive radar. Localization performance and characteristics of the two localization techniques are analyzed and compared, aiming at their joint exploitation inside sensor fusion systems. The former combines the Angle of Arrival (AoA) and the Time Difference of Arrival (TDoA) measures of the device transmissions to achieve the target position, while the latter exploits the AoA and the bistatic range measures of the target echoes. The results obtained on experimental data show that the WiFi emission-based strategy is always effective for the positioning of human targets holding a WiFi device, but it has a poor localization accuracy and the number of measured positions largely depends on the device activity. In contrast, the passive radar is only effective for moving targets and has limited spatial resolution but it provides better accuracy performance, thanks to the possibility to integrate a higher number of received signals. These results also demonstrate a significant complementarity of these techniques, through a suitable experimental test, which opens the way to the development of appropriate sensor fusion techniques

Overview of positioning technologies from fitness-to-purpose point of view

Even though Location Based Services (LBSs) are being more and more widely-used and this shows a promising future, there are still many challenges to deal with, such as privacy, reliability, accuracy, cost of service, power consumption and availability. There is still no single low-cost positioning technology which provides position of its users seamlessly indoors and outdoors with an acceptable level of accuracy and low power consumption. For this reason, fitness of positioning service to the purpose of LBS application is an important parameter to be considered when choosing the most suitable positioning technology for an LBS. This should be done for any LBS application, since each application may need different requirements. Some location-based applications, such as location-based advertisements or Location-Based Social Networking (LBSN), do not need very accurate positioning input data, while for some others, e.g. navigation and tracking services, highly-accurate positioning is essential. This paper evaluates different positioning technologies from fitness-to-purpose point of view for two different applications, public transport information and family/friend tracking

Advanced Signal Processing Algorithms for GNSS/OFDM Receiver

The recent years have shows a growing interest in urban and indoor positioning with the development of applications such as car navigation, pedestrian navigation, local search and advertising and others location-based-services (LBS). However, in urban and indoor environment the classical mean of positioning, the Global Positioning Satellite System (GNSS) has limited availability, accuracy, continuity and integrity due to signal blockage by building, intense multipath conditions and interferences from the other signals, abundant in metropolitan areas. Even some improvements of GNSS can reduce these issues (high-sensitivity receiver, assisted-GNSS, multi-constellation GNSS…), they do not permit to reach sufficient performance in deep urban and indoor environments. However, some alternatives to GNSS allow complementing it in difficult environments. They are, for example, additional sensors (accelerometers, gyrometers, magnetometers, odometers, laser, and video), radiofrequency systems dedicated to positioning (pseudolites, RFID, UWB) or signals of opportunity (SoO). SoO are telecommunication signals (as mobile phone, TV, radio, Wi-Fi) that are used opportunely to provide a positioning service. Even if these signals are not designed for such application, they have the advantages to be many and varied in urban and indoor environments. In addition they allow, by definition, a good integration of communication and positioning services. Among all the SoO available, this thesis focuses on the one based on the Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulation. This choice is motivated by the important popularity of this modulation, that has been chosen in several actual and future telecommunication and broadcasting standards (Wi-Fi, WiMAX, LTE, DVB-T/H/SH, DAB, T-DMB, ISDB-T, MediaFLO…). Among this standard using the OFDM modulation, the European standard for digital television called “Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial” (DVB-T) has been selected to be studied in this thesis. The choice is motivated by the relatively simple definition of this standard, allowing reuse of the work for other OFDM standards, and also because it is already operational in Europe, allowing tests on real signals. A method to obtain ranging measurements based on timing synchronization using DVB-T signals has been developed. This method uses delay lock loops (DLL) and takes into account the specificity of the terrestrial propagation channel (many multipathes, direct signal sometimes absent, quick variation of received power…). The performance of the method has been determinate theoretically and validated by simulation, in an ideal case (i.e.; with a Gaussian propagation channel). This theoretical study has proven than the ranging error standard deviation has an order of magnitude of 1 meter, for signal to noise ratio of about -20 dB, a SNR 40 dB under the demodulation threshold of the TV signal. The performance in a realistic propagation channel has been determined on real signal. For that purpose a test bench has been developed. It allows to receive and record TV signals on two synchronized antennas and it includes and GPS receiver to record a reference position and provide a GPS time reference to the test bench. Tests on real signals have been realized in several environments (sub-urban, urban and indoor) using 1 emitter synchronized on GPS time and 2 emitters in a signal frequency network (SFN). The results of these tests on real signals showed a precision of the ranging estimation of about 10 meters with a better performance in rural environment and an improvement of the ranging estimate using antenna diversity. Finally, the thesis proves the feasibility of positioning with signal using the OFDM modulation, with a technique that can be easily tailored to other OFDM signal than DVB-T

Distance-based sensor node localization by using ultrasound, RSSI and ultra-wideband - A comparision between the techniques

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become one of the most important topics in wireless communication during the last decade. In a wireless sensor system, sensors are spread over a region to build a sensor network and the sensors in a region co-operate to each other to sense, process, filter and routing. Sensor Positioning is a fundamental and crucial issue for sensor network operation and management. WSNs have so many applications in different areas such as health-care, monitoring and control, rescuing and military; they all depend on nodes being able to accurately determine their locations. This master’s thesis is focused on distance-based sensor node localization techniques; Received signal strength indicator, ultrasound and ultra-wideband. Characteristics and factors which affect these distance estimation techniques are analyzed theoretically and through simulation the quality of these techniques are compared in different scenarios. MDS, a centralized algorithm is used for solving the coordinates. It is a set of data analysis techniques that display the structure of distance-like data as a geometrical picture. Centralized and distributed implementations of MDS are also discussed. All simulations and computations in this thesis are done in Matlab. Virtual WSN is simulated on Sensorviz. Sensorviz is a simulation and visualization tool written by Andreas Savvides.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Distance-based sensor node localization by using ultrasound, RSSI and ultra-wideband - A comparision between the techniques

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have become one of the most important topics in wireless communication during the last decade. In a wireless sensor system, sensors are spread over a region to build a sensor network and the sensors in a region co-operate to each other to sense, process, filter and routing. Sensor Positioning is a fundamental and crucial issue for sensor network operation and management. WSNs have so many applications in different areas such as health-care, monitoring and control, rescuing and military; they all depend on nodes being able to accurately determine their locations. This master’s thesis is focused on distance-based sensor node localization techniques; Received signal strength indicator, ultrasound and ultra-wideband. Characteristics and factors which affect these distance estimation techniques are analyzed theoretically and through simulation the quality of these techniques are compared in different scenarios. MDS, a centralized algorithm is used for solving the coordinates. It is a set of data analysis techniques that display the structure of distance-like data as a geometrical picture. Centralized and distributed implementations of MDS are also discussed. All simulations and computations in this thesis are done in Matlab. Virtual WSN is simulated on Sensorviz. Sensorviz is a simulation and visualization tool written by Andreas Savvides.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

D21.3 Analysis of initial results at EuWIN@CTTC

Deliverable D21.3 del projecte europeu NEWCOM#The nature of this Deliverable of WP2.1 (“Radio interfaces for next-generation wireless systems”) is mainly descriptive and its purpose is to provide a report on the status of the different Joint Research Activities (JRAs) currently ongoing, some of them being performed on the facilities that are available at EuWInPeer ReviewedPreprin

Software Defined Radio for processing GNSS signals

GPS satellites are fitted with atomic clocks, in which it relapses the main objective of this project, to recover some of their accuracy and stability on a ground based receiver. This project describes the fundamentals of GPS signals, the assembly of the installation implemented to process them in software and the corresponding experiments. In order to achieve the software processing, a USB DVB-T dongle is connected to an active antenna and to the computer. As mentioned, one of the purposes is also to understand how a GPS can be implemented by software as a the substitution of a big part of the hardware that makes it impenetrable, as they are black boxes of integrated circuits, and expensive. It is known that a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) software-defined open source receiver has already been created by people in Barcelona in “Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC)”, a testbed for GNSS signal processing since it can be customized in every way. It has been used at some intermediate steps of the study while executing parallel experiments in the course of understanding how a GPS signal is digitally processed. In the meantime, some experiments have also been performed only employing hardware before implementing them in software, so that the concepts are visually reflected. When realizing software experiments, an interface called GNURadio has been used because of its enormous implementation of signal processing blocks. GNURadio can be used with external RF hardware to create software-defined radios, or without hardware in a simulation-like environment. Nevertheless, various simulations in the GNU (Octave software environment) have also been executed as processing in real time has not been considered a goal. However, to successfully accomplish the demodulation of the navigation data, which will contribute to restore the accuracy and stability of the satellites clocks that have sent it, the carrier frequency needs to be perfectly recovered, being this last point where the final aim of the project falls on.Outgoin