A Non-Line-of-Sight Wireless Indoor Localization System Using Custom-Designed Radio Relay and Uniform Circular Array

Abstract

Indoor localization using WiFi signals, though getting studied for many years, is not adopted extensively in real indoor environments yet. One possible impediment is that many prior systems perform worse in non-line-of-sight (NLoS) indoor scenarios than in line-of-sight (LoS) scenarios or even fail to work. Nevertheless, realizing localization in both LoS and NLoS scenarios is indispensable for a viable system working in indoor environments. Since existing state-of-the-art solutions mainly aim to localize a target in LoS indoor scenarios, we present a system that uses multipath channel parameters to achieve localization with a single AP in indoor NLoS scenarios. The proposed introduces deployable and simple custom-designed radio relays to assist localization, which can receive signals from the target and forward them to the AP in NLoS scenarios. Field trials conducted in a real NLoS scenario show that our system achieves a median 3-D localization accuracy of 86 cm with a uniform circular array (UCA) in most NLoS conditions, i.e., the direct path from a target to AP is not completely blocked. More importantly, even if in a challenging NLoS condition, i.e., the direct path does not exist, our system can still achieve a median 2-D localization accuracy of 85 cm.