Indoor/Outdoor Location of Cellular Handsets Based on Received Signal Strength

Indoor/Outdoor Location of Cellular Handsets Based on Received Signal Strength Jian Zhu 123 pages Directed by Dr. Gregory D. Durgin Accurate geo-location is an important emerging technology for public safety, commercial use, and military application. Especially, in the United States, the wireless Enhanced 911 (E911) rules by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC) seek to provide 911 dispatchers with additional information on wireless 911 calls. This dissertation presents a novel technique for indoor/outdoor location of cellular handsets based on received signal strength (RSS) measurements taken by a cellular handset of the surrounding base stations. RSS location accuracy for different environments is studied as a function of base station separation distance, cell sector density, measurement density, radio propagation environment, and accuracy of measurement. The analytical and experimental results in this thesis serve as a guideline for the accuracy of RSS signature location technology under different conditions. Accurate outdoor to indoor penetration models are proposed and validated for dense urban areas by introducing pseudo-transmitters to simulate the wave-guiding effects in urban canyon environments. A set of location algorithms is developed to improve location accuracy. Furthermore, an algorithm to discriminate between indoor and outdoor users is proposed and validated. The research results demonstrate the feasibility of RSS location techniques to meet the FCCs requirements for E911 accuracy in urban and semi-urban environments. The techniques remain accurate for indoor handsets. The results also suggest that a hybridization of the handset-based GPS method and the RSS signature method may prove to be the most effective solution for locating handsets across a range of environments; including rural, suburban, dense urban, and indoor.Ph.D.Committee Chair: Durgin, Gregory; Committee Member: Hunter, Michael; Committee Member: Lanterman, Aaron; Committee Member: Li, Ye; Committee Member: Steffes, Pau

Efficient Range-Free Monte-Carlo-Localization for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks

Das Hauptproblem von Lokalisierungsalgorithmen für WSNs basierend auf Ankerknoten ist die Abhängigkeit von diesen. Mobilität im Netzwerk kann zu Topologien führen, in denen einzelne Knoten oder ganze Teile des Netzwerks temporär von allen Ankerknoten isoliert werden. In diesen Fällen ist keine weitere Lokalisierung möglich. Dies wirkt sich primär auf den Lokalisierungsfehler aus, der in diesen Fällen stark ansteigt. Des weiteren haben Betreiber von Sensornetzwerken Interesse daran, die Anzahl der kosten- und wartungsintensiveren Ankerknoten auf ein Minimum zu reduzieren. Dies verstärkt zusätzlich das Problem von nicht verfügbaren Ankerknoten während des Netzwerkbetriebs. In dieser Arbeit werden zunächst die Vor- und Nachteile der beiden großen Hauptkategorien von Lokalisierungsalgorithmen (range-based und range-free Verfahren) diskutiert und eine Studie eines oft für range-based Lokalisierung genutzten Distanzbestimmungsverfahren mit Hilfe des RSSI vorgestellt. Danach werden zwei neue Varianten für ein bekanntes range-free Lokalisierungsverfahren mit Namen MCL eingeführt. Beide haben zum Ziel das Problem der temporär nicht verfügbaren Ankerknoten zu lösen, bedienen sich dabei aber unterschiedlicher Mittel. SA-MCL nutzt ein dead reckoning Verfahren, um die Positionsschätzung vom letzten bekannten Standort weiter zu führen. Dies geschieht mit Hilfe von zusätzlichen Sensorinformationen, die von einem elektronischen Kompass und einem Beschleunigungsmesser zur Verfügung gestellt werden. PO-MCL hingegen nutzt das Mobilitätsverhalten von einigen Anwendungen in Sensornetzwerken aus, bei denen sich alle Knoten primär auf einer festen Anzahl von Pfaden bewegen, um den Lokalisierungsprozess zu verbessern. Beide Methoden werden durch detaillierte Netzwerksimulationen evaluiert. Im Fall von SA-MCL wird außerdem eine Implementierung auf echter Hardware vorgestellt und eine Feldstudie in einem mobilen Sensornetzwerk durchgeführt. Aus den Ergebnissen ist zu sehen, dass der Lokalisierungsfehler in Situationen mit niedriger Ankerknotendichte im Fall von SA-MCL um bis zu 60% reduziert werden kann, beziehungsweise um bis zu 50% im Fall von PO-MCL.

Closely-coupled integration of Locata and GPS for engineering applications

GPS has become an almost indispensable part of our infrastructure and modern life. Yet because its accuracy, reliability, and integrity depend on the number and geometric distribution of the visible satellites, it is not reliable enough for the safety of life, environmental or economically critical applications. Traditionally, this has been addressed by augmentation from dedicated support systems, or integration with other sensors. However, from an engineering perspective only expensive inertial systems or pseudolites offer the accuracy required. In the case of pseudolites, the equivalent of ground based satellites, geometry constraints, fading multipath, imprecise clocks, the near-far effect, tropospheric delay and legislative obstructions make them difficult to implement. This thesis takes a step forward, by proposing a loosely coupled integration with Locata, a novel, terrestrial positioning technology, based on the pseudolite concept. It avoids the above pitfalls by utilising frequency and spatially separated antennas and a license-free frequency band, though this comes at the cost of in-bound interference. Its ability to provide stand-alone position and network synchronisation at nanosecond level is used commercially in open-cast mining and in military aviation. Discussion of Locata and GPS technology has identified their shortcomings and main limiting factors as well as the advantages of the proposed integration. During the course of this research, tropospheric delay, planar solution and known point initialisation ambiguity resolution methods have been identified as the main limiting factors for Locata. These are analysed in various static and kinematic scenarios. Discussion also includes ambiguity resolution, noise and interference detection and system performance in indoor and outdoor scenarios. The proposed navigation engine uses a closely coupled integration at the measurement level and LAMBDA as the ambiguity resolution method for Locata and GPS. A combined solution is demonstrated to offer a geometrical improvement, especially in the respect of height determination, with centimetre to decimetre accuracy and a minimum requirement of two signals from any component. This study identifies that proper separation and de-correlation of Locata and GPS ambiguities and better tropospheric models are essential to reach centimetre level accuracy. The thesis concludes with examples of system implementation including: seamless navigation, city-wide network deployment, urban canyons, a long term-monitoring scenario and indoor positioning. This demonstrates how the proposed navigation engine can be an advantage in areas such as: civil engineering, GIS, mobile mapping, deformation, machine navigation and control

Interface air pour systèmes de navigation en bande S : étude détaillée des signaux OFDM

Positioning in urban or indoor environment is a hot topic, either due to regulations such as the E911 requiring US mobile telecommunication operators to be able to locate their subscribers in case of emergency, or due to the market development, with the extension of location - based services targeting the mass market concentrated in metropolitan areas. In urban or indoor areas, it is generally recognized that satellite - based positioning systems are not suitable (alone) to provide a continuous, reliable and accurate position to the user. Therefore, alternative positioning techniques may be useful to complement or replace satellite positioning in these environments. This PhD study ha s studied the possibility of using a mobile TV system based on the DVB - SH standard as system of opportunity for positioning. The advantage s of using a DVB - SH system for positioning are multiple. First, such system has a good availability in metropolitan areas, including indoor. Secondly, the emitters are synchronized and their density should be sufficient to track signals from several emitters simultaneously. This opens the possibility of using timing measurements from several emitters to find a position by trilateration . Also, the large bandwidth of the TV signal, required for the transmission of video content, should be beneficial for the accuracy of the timing measurements and for the robustness against multipath . Therefore, DVB - SH system seems to be an interesting candidate as system of opportunity for positioning. However, several challenges are to be solved for such a solution to be relevant. First, the signals propagate in the urban environment, which creates challenging conditions for positioning su ch as strong power fading, blockage of the desired line - of - sight signal or large echoes. Secondly, the DVB - SH standard uses an OFDM modulation, which has not been studied for positioning purpose. Therefore, techniques for fine tracking of the first receive d signal replica will have to be developed. Finally, a particularity of modern broadcast system is the use of a Single Frequency Network, in which all emitters send the same signal on the same carrier frequency. Therefore emitter identification in a Single Frequency will be another issue to be solved. This PhD study has proved the feasibility of positioning using DVB - SH signals. The main contributions of this work are the propositions of (1) an OFDM signal delay tracking method working in urban propagation channels, and (2) a modification to the network deployment permitting emitter identification and (3) a first assessment of the position accuracy using the proposed algorithms. These two methods have very low impact on the initial TV broadcasting service if the right set of signal parameters is chosen: no signal modification is required and the network deployment modification uses a feature already present in the DVB - SH standard. The positioning method was simulated using real urban propagation channel measurements. The obtained position has root mean square error of 4 0m. The main error contribution comes from tracking a non - line - of - sight signal. Further work would be required to deal with this issue, which would lower the position root mean square error to 7 m, which has been locally observed in the simulation for good tracking conditionsLe positionnement en environnement urbain est un domaine de recherche actif, de par la croissance des services grand public liées à la localisation, et à cause de réglementations émergentes liées aux situations d'urgence (E911). En environnement urbain ou à l'intérieur des bâtiments, il est communément admis que les systèmes de positionnement basés sur des satellites ne sont pas suffisants pour fournir une position précise, fiable et de manière continue. Des techniques de positionnement alternatives sont donc développées afin de remplacer ou compléter les systèmes de positionnement par satellite. Cette thèse étudie la possibilité de fournir un service de positionnement utilisant un futur système de diffusion de télévison vers les mobiles basé sur le standard DVB-SH. Le principal attrait de ce système pour du positionnement est sa bonne couverture en milieu urbain, ainsi que l'utilisation d'un réseau d'émetteurs synchronisés. Il est donc possible d'employer des mesures de temps d'arrivée des signaux afin de réaliser une triangulation pour calculer la position d'un récepteur. Afin de fournir ce service innovant, des techniques spécifiques d'estimation de pseudo-distance et d'identification d'émetteurs ont été développées dans le cadre de cette thèse. Le principal résultat de cette étude est d'avoir montré la faisabilité du positionnement utilisant un système DVB-SH, ne nécessitant que de légères modifications du système qui n'apportent aucune dégradation auservice de diffusion TV. De premières simulations ont montré une précision de positionnement autour de 40m en utilisant des mesures réalistes de canal de propagation urbain

Reception performance studies for the evaluation and improvement of the new generation terrestrial television systems

270 p.La industria de la TV ha experimentado grandes cambios en las últimas décadas. Las expectativas cada vez mayores de los espectadores y la reducción del espectro disponible para los servicios de TV han provocado la necesidad de sistemas más robustos de Televisión Digital Terrestre (TDT).El primer intento de cumplir estos requisitos es el estándar europeo DVB-T2 (2009). La publicación de un nuevo estándar significa el inicio de un proceso de evaluación del rendimiento del mismo mediante, por ejemplo, estudios de cobertura u obtención de valores de umbral de relación señal / ruido (SNR). Al inicio de esta tesis, este proceso estaba casi terminado para recepción fija y móvil. Sin embargo, la recepción en interiores no se había estudiado en detalle. Por esta razón, esta tesis completa la evaluación de DVB-T2 en interiores y define una nueva metodología de evaluación optimizada para este escenario.A pesar de que DVB-T2 emplea tecnologías muy avanzadas, el sistema se definió hace casi diez años y desde entonces han aparecido nuevas técnicas avanzadas, como por ejemplo nuevos códigos de corrección de errores o la nueva técnica de multiplexación por división en capas (LDM). Estas nuevas técnicas tampoco han sido evaluadas en entornos de interior, por lo que esta tesis incluye el análisis de las mismas evaluando su idoneidad para mejorar el rendimiento de DVB-T2. Además, se ha comprobado que los algoritmos tradicionales de los receptores TDT no están optimizados para los nuevos escenarios en los que se consideran las señales multicapa y recepción móvil. Por esta razón, se han propuesto nuevos algoritmos para mejorar la recepción en este tipo de situaciones.El último intento de hacer frente a los altos requisitos actuales de TDT es el estándar americano ATSC 3.0 (2016). Al igual que con DVB-T2, se necesita proceso completo de evaluación del sistema. Por ello, en esta tesis se han realizado simulaciones y pruebas de laboratorio para completar el estudio de rendimiento de ATSC 3.0 en diferentes escenarios

Ricerche di Geomatica 2011

Questo volume raccoglie gli articoli che hanno partecipato al Premio AUTeC 2011. Il premio è stato istituito nel 2005. Viene conferito ogni anno ad una tesi di Dottorato giudicata particolarmente significativa sui temi di pertinenza del SSD ICAR/06 (Topografia e Cartografia) nei diversi Dottorati attivi in Italia

Closely-coupled integration of Locata and GPS for engineering applications

GPS has become an almost indispensable part of our infrastructure and modern life. Yet because its accuracy, reliability, and integrity depend on the number and geometric distribution of the visible satellites, it is not reliable enough for the safety of life, environmental or economically critical applications. Traditionally, this has been addressed by augmentation from dedicated support systems, or integration with other sensors. However, from an engineering perspective only expensive inertial systems or pseudolites offer the accuracy required. In the case of pseudolites, the equivalent of ground based satellites, geometry constraints, fading multipath, imprecise clocks, the near-far effect, tropospheric delay and legislative obstructions make them difficult to implement. This thesis takes a step forward, by proposing a loosely coupled integration with Locata, a novel, terrestrial positioning technology, based on the pseudolite concept. It avoids the above pitfalls by utilising frequency and spatially separated antennas and a license-free frequency band, though this comes at the cost of in-bound interference. Its ability to provide stand-alone position and network synchronisation at nanosecond level is used commercially in open-cast mining and in military aviation. Discussion of Locata and GPS technology has identified their shortcomings and main limiting factors as well as the advantages of the proposed integration. During the course of this research, tropospheric delay, planar solution and known point initialisation ambiguity resolution methods have been identified as the main limiting factors for Locata. These are analysed in various static and kinematic scenarios. Discussion also includes ambiguity resolution, noise and interference detection and system performance in indoor and outdoor scenarios. The proposed navigation engine uses a closely coupled integration at the measurement level and LAMBDA as the ambiguity resolution method for Locata and GPS. A combined solution is demonstrated to offer a geometrical improvement, especially in the respect of height determination, with centimetre to decimetre accuracy and a minimum requirement of two signals from any component. This study identifies that proper separation and de-correlation of Locata and GPS ambiguities and better tropospheric models are essential to reach centimetre level accuracy. The thesis concludes with examples of system implementation including: seamless navigation, city-wide network deployment, urban canyons, a long term-monitoring scenario and indoor positioning. This demonstrates how the proposed navigation engine can be an advantage in areas such as: civil engineering, GIS, mobile mapping, deformation, machine navigation and control

A Software Defined Radio Experimental Platform for GPS/GNSS Signal Reception Analysis

GPS is becoming a crucial element in daily life and in global information infrastructure. GPS nowadays is becoming more reliable thanks to the technology of A-GPS and D-GPS which uses the Internet and cellular network to enhance the accuracy. However, there is still plenty of room for improvement in the GPS operations. A versatile experimental platform that allows researchers to directly receive raw data from satellites is critical to advance further research. We use a software defined radio (USRP) platform with open source GNSS software to perform the related experiments. We choose the USRP N200 as the software defined radio (SDR) for our work, because of its very good signal processing performance at an affordable price. Unlike mobile phones, or even most GPS chip evaluation kits. The GPS data received from USRP can be utilized to compute pseudo ranges based different satellites. And the pseudo range can be valuable when analyzing the accuracy of computing the locations. With the open source software, the users can easily access and customize their own software development to target the specific application. We built a portable experimental environment based the USRP to carry out field tests at various locations. Two additional limitations of GPS chip evaluation kits are their low quality clocks, and very limited computing resources for more sophisticated experiments. This thesis will talk about this portable software platform and the project which was conducted on it to explore and investigate some crucial problems existing in today’s GNSS technology, for example, multipath problem and hybrid GNSS system problem. By investigating into these problems using SDR GNSS receiver, the benefits of adopting this software oriented approach will be talked about and how this approach in the future can save valuable research and experiment time will also be demonstrated

Automated 3D model generation for urban environments [online]

Abstract In this thesis, we present a fast approach to automated generation of textured 3D city models with both high details at ground level and complete coverage for birds-eye view. A ground-based facade model is acquired by driving a vehicle equipped with two 2D laser scanners and a digital camera under normal traffic conditions on public roads. One scanner is mounted horizontally and is used to determine the approximate component of relative motion along the movement of the acquisition vehicle via scan matching; the obtained relative motion estimates are concatenated to form an initial path. Assuming that features such as buildings are visible from both ground-based and airborne view, this initial path is globally corrected by Monte-Carlo Localization techniques using an aerial photograph or a Digital Surface Model as a global map. The second scanner is mounted vertically and is used to capture the 3D shape of the building facades. Applying a series of automated processing steps, a texture-mapped 3D facade model is reconstructed from the vertical laser scans and the camera images. In order to obtain an airborne model containing the roof and terrain shape complementary to the facade model, a Digital Surface Model is created from airborne laser scans, then triangulated, and finally texturemapped with aerial imagery. Finally, the facade model and the airborne model are fused to one single model usable for both walk- and fly-thrus. The developed algorithms are evaluated on a large data set acquired in downtown Berkeley, and the results are shown and discussed