Abstract
Supply chain management requires regular updates of the location of assets, which can be enabled by low power wide area networks, such as Sigfox. While it is useful to localize a device simply by its communication signals, this is very difficult to do with Sigfox because of wide area and ultra narrowband nature. On the other hand, installing a satellite localization element on the device greatly increases its power consumption. We investigated using information about nearby Wi-Fi access points as a way to localize the asset over the Sigfox network, so without connecting to those Wi-Fi networks. This paper reports the location error that can be achieved by this type of outdoor localization. By using a combination of two databases, we could localize the device on all 36 test locations with a median location error of 39 m . This shows that the localization accuracy of this method is promising enough to warrant further study, most specifically the minimal power consumption.
Highlights
The location of an asset at a given time is an important piece of information in supply chain management [1,2,3]
The continuous category relies on a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) to establish the location of the asset and a cellular data connection to communicate this location with the management software
While Wi-Fi fingerprinting is well studied, we investigate for the first time the location error when reducing the available information to only two Basic Service Set Identifiers (BSSID), when usually anywhere between ten to sixty BSteSIDs can be seen, including a Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) value to indicate if it is nearby or far away
Summary
The location of an asset at a given time is an important piece of information in supply chain management [1,2,3]. Hillbrand and Schoech [4] divide tracking and tracing of assets into two categories: discrete and continuous. The discrete category relies on barcodes and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) approaches to know when a specific asset is at a predefined location. The continuous category relies on a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) such as the Global Positioning System (GPS) to establish the location of the asset and a cellular data connection to communicate this location with the management software. Kandel et al [5] define a subcategory to continuous tracking, called the quasi-continuous tracking. In this subcategory, the management software continuously tracks a vehicle, while the vehicle has knowledge about the assets it carries through discrete tracking. Oliveira et al [6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call